Unexpected
by emberfire411
Summary: AU, the Winx girls are living in New York City, where danger and romance are never far apart. One night, Bloom is robbed coming back from a night club. This leads to an unexpected rescue, which leads to an unexpected romance. Sparxshipping.
1. Prologue: Three Days Left

**Ok, I couldn't resist writing a Sparxshipping after reading so many. I'm including other couples, too, so be ready for that. So, quit reading this blabbing and get on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: Do you seriously think I own the Winx Club?**

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It's funny how some things work out. I mean, ever since I was little, I always thought of myself as the bad luck kid, the one who gave the term 'bad karma' a whole new meaning. Now looking back, I realize that maybe all of that may have been just bad steps to something great, something fantastic…something, well, you get the picture. And as far as I can tell, it all started about a month and a half ago…

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Prologue: Three Days Left

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**Bloom**

My alarm clock buzzed, waking me from my peaceful slumber and throwing my headfirst into reality. A groan escaped my mouth as I reached over and shut off the clock. Satisfied, I turned back over and tried to go back to sleep. Unfortunately I couldn't for two reasons:

One: Once I wake up I can never go back to sleep, and

Two: A few seconds later the door my room (well I do have a roommate, but she's always up before me) opened, sending a ray of light onto my bed and straight into my eyes.

"Bloom, you awake?" a voice asked.

I was squinting to try and filter the light out of my eyes, but I still managed to smile. "Yeah Flora, I'm up."

"Ok, just checking," my roommate said, "Sometimes I think there could be a thunder storm roaring outside and you wouldn't even flinch."

"Oh thanks!" I took the pillow I was using to shield my eyes and threw it at her. Flora was laughing as she caught it.

"Come on, we're all headed to the café for breakfast."

"Ok, give me five minutes."

Flora nodded and walked out. I slowly got out of bed and walked over to my closet. After rummaging through it for a few minutes, I finally decided on a light blue tank top and a denim mini skirt. I also accented the look with a pair of yellow lace up sandals (even though I'm pretty sure their the shoes I borrowed from Flora last week). After that, I went into the bathroom and put on a little makeup. And after doing a onceover in the mirror, I was ready to go.

Right before I walked out of the room, I went over to the window and pulled back the curtains to look outside. The bustling city lay before me. The endless traffic, the faint sound of sirens, all the people crowding the streets, trying to get to where they wanted to be, and Central Park in the distance…all made this place what it was. New York City. Home. My Home.

Of course, this place is totally different then where I grew up, in this little city in Colorado. My sister and I used to have the craziest adventures there. My Dad used to tell us that one day we'd break every single bone in our body doing something stupid like jumping off a rope swing. Of course, we were never out alone. Daphne's best friend used to come with us. He was cute, too. But that was before he…

I shook the thought from my head. It didn't matter now. He was out of my life, thank god. But somehow, I sorry he is. Not that I miss him…god, no, I just wanted answers. About his actions toward my family, my sister, to me. But honestly, I didn't care if I ever saw that no good scumbag Bal…

"Bloom come on!" I heard my best friend Stella call me. "Musa wants us to meet her at the club in an hour!"

"Ok, ok, I'll be right there!" I called. I grabbed my purse off my dresser, taking just enough time to look at the photo in the small silver frame. It was a picture of my family. Me, my sister Daphne, Mom, and Dad. My parents. My real parents. Don't get me wrong though. Mike and Vanessa, my adoptive parents, are great. But sometimes I wish my real parents were still around. I miss them.

"Bloom!"

I turned from the picture and raced out the door, also giving my calendar a quick glance. September 18. Three days to go.

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**Ok, I'm sure it seems I went on there, but Oritel and Miriam play a big role in the story. And so does Daphne's best friend. Bloom started to say his name a few paragraphs up. Guess who it is? Anyway, because of the lack of action, chapter two is up, too. So go read that and review. Or review now and after Chapter 2. Either way, review!**


	2. The Back Alley

**Just a quick confusion clear-up. The little part at the begging of the chapter is always in Bloom's POV. As for the rest of the chapter, the name in bold is the POV it's in. Any other questions, just PM me. On with the story!**

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One thing I've learned living in New York for two years is that the word 'ordinary' doesn't exist here. And usually, that means life is adventurous. However, that doesn't always mean in a good way.

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Chapter 2: The Back Alley

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**Bloom**

"You sure you don't want to stick around?" Musa asked me. The two of us, along with the rest of our roommates, Layla, Tecna, Flora, and Stella, were hanging out in one of the many clubs Musa's dad owned here in New York. She was in the middle of mixing a bunch of songs for a demo CD (she's a music fanatic). Layla was making up dance moves to go along with the music, while Tecna was filming it all (if she ever gets famous, we all agreed the videos might come in handy). Stella and Flora were in the middle of another 'is fake animal fur better that real fur for coats?' discussion, and it sounded like it was turning ugly…again. That kind of left me in the middle. I mean, my voice isn't exactly star material, I'm pretty clumsy, so dancing is out. Technology isn't my thing, either, and I was _way_ too smart to try and mess with Flora and Stella right now. So honestly, I wanted to just go back to the apartment and work on another of my many doodles I had on my desk.

"I'm sure, Musa."

"You want a lift back?" Stella asked, turning from Flora to me.

"That's ok, I'll take a cab."

"Ok," Stella said before turning back to Flora, "I'm telling you real fur is warmer!"

"But at what price!?" Flora shot back.

Tecna rolled her eyes at hearing them argue again. She turned to me and mouthed 'smart move' before going back to filming. Smiling, I walked out of the club.

The streets were almost empty as I walked. There were a few people here and there, but not many. And of course, no cabs. Slightly frustrated, I walked a little faster, passing a group of guys who were leaned against a wall, smoking. After I passed, I heard them whispering. A few seconds later, three of them left the group and started walking about ten feet behind me. I didn't really notice until about three blocks later, when I noticed they were still following.

I tried to keep myself calm. _They're probably nothing to be afraid of. Just calm down._ I picked up my pace slowly, and when I glanced back, I saw they did, too. These guys were _definitely_ following me.

Now I panicked, so I did the only logical thing I could think of. I ran. And probably for a good three blocks, too. After that, I ducked into a nearby alley, taking a few deep breaths to steady myself.

"Did you think we would be that easy?"

I jumped and spun around. The three guys were there, blocking the only way out. Panic time.

"Now, come on guys, take it easy. I think were scaring her." The second guy chuckled.

"Yeah, were not going to hurt you…much" the third guy added. I shivered. Much? Not good.

"I…I'm warning you" I tried to say, but found myself at a loss for words. After I spoke, the three guys burst out laughing.

"Well aren't we the brave one." The first guy laughed. He then reached out and grabbed my purse. Without thinking, I yanked it back and gave him a hard slap across the face. I tried running after that. However I didn't make it too far, forgetting about the two other guys. They each grabbed one of my arms and threw me to the ground. My side immediately started throbbing in pain. Something was broken, that was for sure.

I tried getting up again, but one of the guys grabbed my left ankle and gave it a good twist. I screamed in pain as I heard a sickening crack and I fell back down. After that it got kind of blurry. I know that one of them took my purse back and that the other two were basically using me for a practice dummy. I tried fighting back (all I know for sure is a hit one of them in the chest pretty hard), but they only punched me harder. Finally, the one with my purse, and apparently the leader of the little gang, shot up some sort of hand signal. I was immediately pushed back to ground. The first two guys walked out of the alley. One of them stayed behind for a minute though.

"Next time, think before you act." He gave me a hard kick in the stomach before turning his back on me and walking away.

I waited for about five minutes before trying to get up. When I did, though, I fell back down. I couldn't support any weight on my right leg, probably because of my ankle. The pain was intense. Thinks started going fuzzy, and I knew I was just about to black out. Great. What a…

"Hello! Anyone back here?!" a heard a voice yell. I gave a low moan in reply. It was all I could manage. Then I blacked out.

**???**

Sometimes I wonder why I moved here. I mean, Colorado was nice. I had a life, family, friends…**.** Well, two out of three isn't bad. I guess you could say I _had_ friends. Then that whole incited…I didn't even want to think about it.

So, long story short, I left after a little problem. Moved to New York City, and never looked back. Though I wish I would have been smart enough to see the truth behind what I was supposedly promised. Now, almost ten years later, I'm smart enough to see what's going on.

And in way too over my head to quit.

If I ever meet my fifteen year old self, I might just kill him.

But I do like it here. You see the most random things here. People walking down the street in the most outrageous clothes. People getting into fights about the most random things (The record for the most random fight right now is over a mustard bottle. I mean, come on!). Or even…those three guys walking out of that alley with cash. Wait…what? I slowly rolled down my car window, just enough to hear, but not enough to be noticed.

"Wow! Three hundred bucks in cash!" I heard a voice say. "And that's not with credit cards. How many did she have?"

"Five." I heard someone answer.

"And she also had a mean punch." Someone else added.

"Doesn't matter." The first guy replied. "She's out cold. By the time anyone finds her…" he trailed off and gave a low chuckle. The guys turned the corner.

Not wasting time, I pulled up to the curb and got out of the car. The guy didn't have to finish his sentence. _By the time anyone finds her…_**.** She must be in pretty bad shape. I slowly approached the alley.

"Hello!" I called, "Anyone back here?!" I was met with silence. I let out a sigh of relief. Those guys must have been…

"Ugh…o…over here!"

I looked around. That was definitely a person. I glanced at the back wall. And my stomach flipped.

There was a girl…I couldn't make out her face…but there was a girl knocked unconscious on the ground. I raced over to her. She had a pretty good amount of bruises on her body, some bad cuts, most of which were still bleeding, and her ankle looked like it was broken.

"Hey," I shook her shoulder softly, "Hey, can you hear me?" No reply. "Come on kid, wake up." Still nothing. "Last chance." I said, "Wake up."

She took a deep breath, but remained unconscious. I groaned. "Ok, then." Watching her wounds, a carefully picked her up bridal style. I still couldn't see her face, but I could tell that she had red hair.

_Pretty funny. I'm thinking about my old life and suddenly I find a girl with red hair. And she has the same bracelet that Daphne's sister used to. Ha! If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was…_

I made it out of the alley, and light from the streetlamp shined on the girls face. Taking one look at her, I almost dropped her when I saw who it was.

_Bloom._

**Ok, the '???' means I'm keeping the person's identity a secret. But you probably already know who it is. Reviews are welcome, flaming is not!**


	3. A New Car and and Old Enemy

**Six reviews? Sweet. Ok, most of you know who saved Bloom, so let see how it's going.**

**BTW: If you got a message saying that Chapter 2 was up, too, it's only because I was editing. Sorry!**

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Ok, recap. I'm knocked out in an alley, money gone, and none of my friends know. Even to this day I don't know every detail of what happened from when I was knocked out to when I woke up. I do know that the car had been fairly new. The company in the car? Not so much.

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Chapter 3: A New Car and an Old Enemy

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**Bloom**

I slowly blinked my eyes open. For a second I forgot what happened. But then the memories hit me. The guys, the beating…my head started throbbing again, and I was immediately disappointed in myself for letting them intimidate me. Then I remembered something else. When I blacked out, I had been in the alley. Looking around now, I realized I was in the passenger seat of a car. What the heck happened? Silently, I turned my head to make sure the driver wasn't one of those goons who attacked me. Who I found myself staring at was even more shocking.

His hair was back in a ponytail, different from how it looked the last time I saw him. His coat was shorter, only going to his lower back. And instead of dark pants, he was wearing jeans. But besides the minor appearance change, Baltor still looked like his old self.

I saw him glance over at me. I quickly closed my eyes, hoping he hadn't seen me. I heard him chuckle.

"I saw that." I shivered involuntarily. I hadn't heard his voice in so long. Giving up pretending to be asleep, I opened my eyes and sat up straight in the seat, trying to distance myself from him. But considering I was in a car, there wasn't much room to distance. "How do you feel?" Baltor asked me.

"Fine." That was a lie. My head hurt, the cut on my arm was throbbing, and my ankle was swollen. I could tell it wasn't broken or anything (I broke my arm when I was 9, so believe me I know when something's broken.), but it still hurt. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he replied, "I moved here about a year ago. You?"

"Two years ago," I said cautiously. "Mike and Vanessa let me move in with…"

"…With?"

My eyes narrowed. "A friend."

"Someone we know from back home?" he asked

"Someone _I_ know," I replied coldly, "That I met in Gardenia."

Baltor raised his eyebrows but said nothing back. "Well with that attitude I'm guessing your ok. Considering how I found you," he paused, "You seem to still be…you."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"It means," Baltor replied with a slightly irritated tone, "That you probably don't need to get checked out."

I was silent for a minute, "You mean like get checked out at a hospital?" He nodded. "I don't need to go to the hospital. I'm fine."

"If your sure. I mean you're pretty beaten up…"

"I'm fine! For the third time!" I snapped. Baltor cast a look at me but said nothing.

"Excuse me for trying to help."

"Define help. Help as in being nice, or the way you 'helped' my parents?" The car screeched to a halt. I panicked until I realized Baltor got caught at a red light. He was staring at the road, his golden eyes absolutely unreadable.

"Don't start with me on that, Bloom. I've told you a thousand times, it wasn't my fault."

"Right," I scoffed as the light turned green and we started moving, "That's not how I remember it."

"If I recall," Baltor said, his eyes had a hint of amusement, "You found out about it from your sister. You weren't with your parents when it happened."

I glared at him and slumped back in my seat. I hate it when he's right. "I still don't believe you," I said under my breath. Baltor apparently didn't hear me, or at least didn't respond. It was a few minutes before he spoke to me again.

"So where do you want me drop you?" I raised an eyebrow. Baltor gave a small laugh, shaking his head. "Where's your house?"

"The apartment building on 42nd street." I replied, "Why?"

"Why do you think? I'm driving you home."

"I wish you'd let me walk."

"Not happening." Baltor replied.

"But-"

"You look older," Baltor said, changing the subject. He does that a lot. "What are you now, seventeen, eighteen?"

"Twenty-one." I snapped. To say I was ticked right now was probably an understatement.

Baltor's eyes widened for a fraction of a second. "You look young for your age."

I glared at him, ignoring the compliment. Now, Baltor was three years older than me, so that put him at…twenty-four. I knew because when the whole 'incident' happened, Baltor had been fifteen, and I was 12. Three years. But looking at Baltor now, he looked my age. In fact, he was kind off…handsome. Wait, what did I just say? _Get a hold of yourself Bloom…_

"Bloom?"

"Huh? What?" I snapped out of my thoughts to find Baltor smirking at me.

"I said how did you end up knocked out in that alley anyway?"

"Why do you even care?" I asked suspiciously.

Baltor rolled his eyes. "For someone who's getting a free lift home, you sure don't show a lot of respect."

"I respect those who deserve to be respected." I said, giving a smirk.

"Ouch," he replied sarcastically, "So how's your sister?" Again, changes the subject often.

"Daphne moved after graduation."

"Where to?"

"Florida." Again, a lie. Daphne lives in California, Long Beach to be exact. But I had a feeling if I told the truth, Daphne would hang me. I'm not even kidding. "She still hates you, you know."

He laughed, "I'm sure she does. But it's not like I care."

I had been staring out the car window, watching the street signs flash by, counting how many blocks until home (fourteen, in case your wondering.). When he said that however, I snapped my head around to look at him. "You don't _care_?"

"No. Why should I?"

"Well, you guys were best friends. You would hang out all the time. And last time I checked, friends care about other friends opinions."

"She hates me, remember?" Baltor said as though it were nothing. I opened my mouth to protest, but I found that I couldn't say anything. Now, I hated it when Baltor won in a fight, ever since I was little. It always seemed like I had the upper hand, but then Baltor would whip something out and I'd look like an idiot. It was bad enough when we were friends, but now, hating him, losing the argument felt even worse. Glancing back at Baltor, I saw that his face was emotionless, but I could tell in his eyes he had gotten a kick out of proving me wrong. Now I'd have to do my part of the deal. Dang it… "Ok," I said finally, "Maybe she doesn't hate you."

"Really?" Baltor had an amused look on his face.

"But that doesn't mean she'll ever talk to you again." I quickly added. Baltor looked at me in surprise. Then she slowly cracked a smile, a small one, but still a smile, and laughed. "Looks like I taught you well."

I laughed too. "Yeah, I guess you did." Realizing what I just said, I clamped a hand over my mouth. Baltor let out another laugh.

"I'm sorry, who won that little argument?"

"Boasting will get you nowhere in life." I said in a matter-of-fact tone. And though I knew I was supposed to be mad, I knew I was smiling.

"Point," he agreed with a smile, "So before I boast anymore, do me a favor. Get out of my car." I looked out my window. I was in front of my apartment complex.

"So let me review. I need to start showing respect to people who give me free rides, I need to learn how to win arguments, and I need to get out of your car. Will there be anything else?"

"Two things, actually," he said. I turned around to look at him. "One, you failed to answer my previous question."

"Which one?" I asked with a playful smirk

"The one where you tell me what a twenty-one year old girl was doing knocked out in alley looking like she came out of a wrestling match."

I sighed and started opening the car door. "I was robbed, ok? I was trying to find a cab home, and I ran into a couple of thugs."

"I see. And that brings me to number two. Don't let it happen again. I don't need to be out looking though every alley in New York City every night for an unconscious redhead, ok?"

"Oh, ok, Dad. I'll be more careful next time." I said in sarcastic tone. He laughed, and I stepped out of the car.

"One more thing Bloom." I stuck my head back in the car.

"Yeah?"

"You look good. You know, considering how long it's been and what's happened."

That triggered it. I remembered at that moment that I was supposed to be mad at him. "Well, considering you've been giving me advice all night let me give you some: Your flirting skills need obvious work." I shut the car door. I thought I heard Baltor call my name again, but I was obviously wrong because a second later his car sped down the street. Only one word popped into my head about what just happened. One single word. _Jerk._ It looked like Baltor was still Baltor. Oh well, at least I wouldn't be seeing him again. I hoped.

I entered the building. In the main lobby of the complex, I glanced up at the clock. 1:15a.m. Great. My friends were going to kill me. And after that, yet another though dashed into me head. _September 19. Two days to go._

**Well, there you are. Now if any of you are thinking: 'Two days? What?' Don't worry, you'll get it later. Now before you go, you see that little green button that says Review on it? Go and click that, and tell me how you're liking the story. Just follow one rule when you hit that button: Reviews are welcome, flaming is not. Other than that, it should be fine. Bye!**

Sneak Peek at Chapter4:

Bloom thinks that the whole deal with Baltor is over, and she can just move on. But with new technology, she'll find out just how hard it is to try and stay away from people. Especially when they have your phone number.


	4. Texting Trouble

**All right, over 300 hits on the story already! Awesome! First off, answering questions. As you'll find out in this chapter, Bloom didn't give Baltor her cell phone number. And why is he acting nice? That for now is a secret! But by the time the story is over, your going to get it. I also had a really good idea from a reviewer, but it contrasts too much with what I've already written, but it was much appreciated. Ok, I think I've gone on long enough. Let's go!**

**Disclaimer: Last time I checked, I'm not Iginio Straffi, so last I checked, I don't own Winx Club.**

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The minute Flora saw me when I got back to the apartment, she immediately ordered me to sit down, and she took a good look at my wounds (Flora's a real caring person. You know, someone with the 'mom' attitude.). After that, I was ordered to bed, saying that she was taking me to a doctor in the morning. I followed orders without objection, walking into my room and pulling on my pajamas. Before I went to bed however, I glanced out my window to make sure Baltor's car was out of sight. It was, thank goodness. Without a second thought, I went to bed, only waking up once, about an hour later, when I thought I had heard someone at our door. However, being too tired to care, I disregarded it and went back to sleep.

I guess in a way, I was pretty happy. I mean, I was alive, for a start. My friends were ok with everything, and best of all, I had totally walked away from Baltor. I mean, he'd have to call Mike and Vanessa to figure out how to get a hold of me, and that was saying they were going to tell him. It looked like, for once in my life, I had gone up against Baltor…and won. I was feeling pretty good. But then, of course, he went and did something he'd always like to do when it came to his best friend's little sister.

Baltor went and proved me wrong.

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Chapter 4: Texting Trouble

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**Bloom**

"Feeling better Bloom?" Layla asked me the next morning. I could tell she was just about to leave for work. Layla worked part-time at a dance studio, teaching hip-hop to kids ages ten through fifteen. Layla loves it, and plus, it's a way to pay bills. Of course, Stella will usually pay. She comes from a rich family. _Rich_. Like, having a spare bedroom renovated into a second closet rich (and she still had seven spare bedrooms left. That rich!).

"Yeah, kind of. Flora and Stella are taking me to a doctor to get my ankle checked out."

"Normally I'd come," Tecna said, "But I've got work, too." Tecna's job highly differs from Layla. She helps out at a restaurant in New York's heart. My friends and I all love it there. She has the morning shift there with Flora's boyfriend Helia, and Roxy **(1)**, one of our other friends**. **"But I hope yourok, Bloom."

"Well other then being kind of tired, I feel pretty good." I replied.

"Hope so. See you guys later!" Layla called as she opened the door to the apartment and stepped out. However, before she closed the door, she gave the handle a long look. "Wow Bloom, you must have been really out of it last night!"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Layla grabbed something off the door and held it up. My purse! "Here, catch." Layla tossed it to me. "Bye guys!"

"Wow." Tecna said. "How could you have forgotten that?"

"I truly have no idea. But um…I'm going to go put it in my room to put it away." I walked out of the living room, totally confused. Hadn't those guys taken my purse? Then again, I got knocked in the head pretty hard…

When I walked into my room, I could hear the shower in the bathroom running. Assuming Flora would be a while; I sat down on my bed and opened my purse. It looked like everything was in it. What the…? I took out my wallet, and opened it to see if maybe being robbed was just a dream. The result; It had happened. All my cash and my credit cards were gone. Great. One more thing to worry about. I did notice one thing, however, a slip of paper tucked into one of the pockets. I grabbed it and opened it up.

_Forget something? _

I suddenly got it. Baltor. He must have followed me…that noise I heard when I was sleeping…it was probably him leaving my purse. Now I was between being really grateful and being really ticked off. I was grateful because I had my purse back, but ticked because Baltor had been through my stuff. I mean, did I even have all of my stuff? I did a quick run-through. Yep, I had my makeup case, my cell phone…thank goodness I had that. I flipped it open. Flora had told me last night she had tried calling me. Sure enough a little sign popped up.

_One Missed Call: Flora. 1. Disregard. 2. Call Back._

I pressed one. I got another pop-up.

_New Contact Saved 1. Edit 2. View 3. Erase _

New contact? What? I hit two. A number popped up a second later. I gave it a long look: 555-0129. I was clueless. Had it been those goons who programmed it? I was scrolling up to see the name it was saved as, when, yet again, I got another pop-up.

_One new text. 1. View. 2. Ignore_

I pressed one. It came up a second later.

_Hope your feeling better. Call me when you feel like catching up._

I looked at the person it was from. And my eyes nearly fell out of my head. _From: Baltor 555-0129_. Oh. My. God. That jerk! He programmed his cell number into my phone. Forget grateful, I was ticked off. I went to my contact list, highlighted his number, and pressed delete. I got a conformation.

_Are you sure you want to delete this number? 1. Yes. 2. No_

I was so close to hitting one. Really I was. But then, of course, my memory had to kick in.

_(Flashback) _

It had been two years ago, one the day, to be exact. I'd had been in California with Daphne, and we were on the pier near her house, looking over the ocean. Considering everything, we had been doing pretty well. But the main reason was…

"Someone order two ice cream bars?" I turned around to face a girl with shoulder-length brown hair and dark eyes, dressed in jeans and a dark blue T-Shirt.

Smiling, I took one of the bars. "Thanks, Diana." Diana was one of Daphne's closest friends. We met her when Daphne was in High School, so she had met Baltor. Also, I had been best friends with Diana's younger sister, Mitzi, in grade school. However, Mitzi's way stuck up now. She left to go to college in Italy about a year ago, and I haven't heard from her since. Sorry, I'm getting off subject. Anyway, Diana hadn't known Baltor as long as we had (which had been eleven years then, and Diana had known him for nine), but they had still been ok friends. Diana had always told us that one day Baltor was going to betray us, but Daphne and I always said she was too hard on him. She even said it to his face once, but we didn't listen. Man, had we been idiots not to believe her (thankfully, Diana never rubbed it in.).

"Yeah well, what are friends for?" she shrugged, handing the other bar to Daphne. "But if you don't mind, I have a question."

"Shoot." Daph (that's Daphne's nickname) and I had said together.

"Well, you're always so upset today because it's the anniversary of your parents' death. You guys always told me that, but you never said who did it, and what happened to them."

I looked at her shocked. Daphne seemed to be taking it a little better. "We don't know why our parents were killed," she started quietly, "We do know, however, that…that Baltor was the one who killed them."

Diana gave her a long look. "Baltor? Baltor from-high-school Baltor? Your kidding right?"

"I wish." I had said quietly.

"Why?"

"Again, were clueless," Daphne said, looking out to the sea.

"Man," Diana said thoughtfully, "If I ever got the chance, I'd sure like to figure out why."

"Like he'd tell you." My voice had hints of anger in it.

"Well," she went on, "All I'm saying is that if I ever saw him again, I'd try to find out. You know, get close to him long enough to figure it out, then high-tail it before things got to…you know."

"Complicated?" Daphne supplied.

"Yeah. But then again, that's me."

_(End Flashback)_

I snapped back to reality to find myself looking at my cell phone screen and the delete contact number option on it.

_Man, if I ever got the chance, I'd sure like to figure out why._

Thinking Diana's words over, I let out a long sigh. And hit number two on my cell phone.

**Baltor**

The morning was slow. I was sitting in the café near my house, looking over notes and e-mails on my laptop. But even with the cup of coffee I had in my hand, I couldn't seem to wake up. But I wasn't very surprised, though. I had gotten four…maybe five hours of sleep. I sighed and took a sip of the coffee, even though I was pretty sure caffeine couldn't help me now.

She looks so much like her mother.

When I first saw her, I could have sworn it was Miriam. But of course, I eventually realized it was Bloom. Because Miriam was…well, gone. But Bloom could have passed for her; same eyes, hair, and attitude…even though I'm not sure the last part is a good thing. Daphne and I was always say that Miriam had a certain…attitude. That basically meant that when it came to people she didn't like, who were on her 'bad' list, she would either ignore them completely or talk a little to them, but the only talk would consist of sarcastic remarks. With that said I knew two things were certain; one: Bloom had that attitude, and two: I was one that 'bad list'. Why? Simple. Bloom blamed me for her parents' death, even though it wasn't my fault.

Well, not entirely.

Suddenly, my phone started vibrating on the table, distracting me from my ranting thoughts (probably a good thing). I grabbed it and slid the screen up.

_One new message. 1. View, 2. Ignore_

I hit one.

_You went through my stuff?!_

Speak of the redhead. I hit reply.

_I simply brought it back to your place. I'd expect you to thank me._

I pressed send. I got a reply about a minute later.

_Looking through my wallet? Messing with my phone? Why should I thank you for that!?_

I smiled. I was definitely on her bad side. But, even though it might get me killed, I typed back;

_I could have kept it._

For a while, I thought she was going to leave it at that. But of course, Bloom likes proving she can win in an argument (especially when it comes to me). She texted back a few seconds later.

_Fine, thanks forgiving me back my stuff._

I stared in disbelief. She thanked me? Another message appeared.

_What are you doing?_

I recovered and wrote back.

_Being a stalker are we?_

She didn't text back. Instead, my cell phone started ringing. After checking the caller ID, I picked up.

"Well are you?"

"I am _not_ a stalker, Baltor!" I heard Bloom yell.

"Could have fooled me."

"Stalking someone would be programming their number into a person's phone without asking."

I sighed. "Got me."

She laughed then. Really laughed. Something I hadn't heard for nine…maybe ten years.

"So what are you doing?"

"Nothing much, besides trying to wake up," I replied honestly, "I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Don't I know that story."

I was silent. "Ok, what?"

"What do you mean?" Bloom asked.

"Last night barely spoke to me after I gave you the free…and I repeat _free_, lift home. And now, you're acting nice and have gone over a minute and a half without making a snide comment. Did those thugs knock you upside the head?"

"You said to call when I felt like catching up."

"But I didn't think you'd actually do it."

"Maybe I changed my mind." Bloom shot back.

"Come on, Bloom."

"I'm serious! Besides, I thought you said you weren't busy!"

"Maybe I'm working on my flirting skills. A little bird told me they needed obvious work." I said sarcastically.

"…Right. Sorry about that."

"There you go again! What's with you?"

"Maybe I'm trying to be nice!" I held the phone about an inch away from my ear. I forgot that girl had such strong lungs. Finally, I gave up. I knew I was getting her mad, and considering I might actually be getting on her good side, I didn't want to go back.

"Ok, Ok!" I finally said, "I believe you!"

"Thank you."

"So," I said, trying to get past how weird this was, "where are you right now?"

"Actually," she sounded sheepish, "I'm going to go and get checked out. After my friends saw me last night, they insisted.

"And you said you were fine."

"I am!"

"Bloom?"

"Fine…fine-ish."

"Don't lie," I said in a fake tone.

"Ok I wasn't fine!"

"At least you finally admitted it."

"Anyway," I could tell by her voice it was taking every ounce of sanity she had not to start cussing me out, "I should be done around ten…so how about noon?"

"Sounds good. Any particular place you want to meet?"

"Any place you have in mind?"

I thought for a moment. "Well…how about that Italian restaurant on Fifth Avenue? For lunch or something? I'll buy."

"Sounds good."

"Then it's a date. See you then."

"Bye."

I hung up. A date? Had I really just said that? Idiot! Either the sleep or the caffeine was getting to me. Probably the caffeine. Well, what's done is done right? I went back to looking at the computer files. But of course, my phone rang again. I glanced at the caller ID, groaned, and then picked up.

"What?"

"My, my. What a friendly hello that was."

"Sorry to be such a disappointment," I said dryly, "I'm busy right now. Make it quick."

"Oh yeah, that call sounded so urgent."

"What-"

"Phone duplicate. We listen, remember?"

"Now I do, unfortunately."

"Was it her?"

"Define her."

"Baltor!" the voice said irritably.

"Relax! Yeah, it was her. And by the way, that 'her' has a name. Bloom."

"Oh. My apologies. Sounds like someone's got an old flame going."

"Will you cut that out!" I snapped. "She is not an old flame! She just…just Daphne's sister."

"Uh-huh. Whatever you say. Anyway, what are you going to do to her?"

"What do you mean? I thought you said you were listening? I'm taking her to lunch."

"But they-"

"They expect her to be hand delivered within two weeks. How can we do that if she doesn't trust me?"

"We?"

"Yes we," I replied in a bored tone, "If I go down, your coming with me, babe."

"Fine. But, I do actually have a reason for calling."

"Then by all means enlighten me."

"They upped the price."

"To?"

"One hundred thousand."

I practically dropped my coffee. "Did you say _one hundred_?!"

"Yep," the voice sounded excited, "Think of it, that's fifty thousand each. We'll be able to buy our way out of this whole gang. We'll be free, Baltor. _Free_!"

"Sounds like heaven," I was barely paying attention now. I zoned out after the first 'free'. That was a word I had only been dreaming about the last ten years.

"Hey, Romeo. Snap out of it." I shook my head, whipping the fantasies out. "We still need to pull it off." The voice continued.

"Relax," I said with a sly grin, "Were getting her. And then, we take the money, buy ourselves out of this whole thing."

"Then retire happily to the west coast for the rest of our lives!" the voice finished.

My smile broadened. "Exactly."

**(1) - Roxy is the seventh member of the Winx. I decided to add her for the heck of it.**

**BTW - Diana is _not _part of the Winx. She's an OC. Ok, good news bad news time. Good news; my spring break is next week. Bad news? I'm in CA the whole time. But, cross your fingers, I'm hoping to still update during that time. As always, review! I like it when people do that. But no flames!**


	5. It's a Date

**Ugh, have I really not updated in so long? **

After I hung up the phone, the only reason I didn't faint was because I heard the shower stop, and it would look _really_ bad if Flora found me passed out on the floor.

I had a date. _A Date!!! _With _Baltor_! I couldn't believe I'd done that. I mean sure, I'd been on dates before, but….I'm sure you get that this one was a little different. But yet, I still went. Now I'm sure you're asking yourself, why would I do that? Well, of course, Diana's words had gotten to me (something she seemed very proud of when I told her the whole story later on), and I _was_ interested in finding out Baltor's reason for killing my parents. So, I decided to go on the date.

And let me tell you; what happened that afternoon seemed to some straight out of reality T.V.

* * *

Chapter 5: It's a Date

* * *

**Bloom**

"Bloom? Earth to Bloom." I snapped out of my thought to find Flora waving her hand in front of my face.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, Flora."

"No problem," she said, walking over to her closet, "You just looked zoned out. You ok?"

"Fine." I replied quickly.

Flora gave me a look as she pulled a yellow skirt from her closet, "Um…ok. Who're you texting?"

"Sky." The lie rolled easily off my tongue. "Just asking me if I felt better."

"Aww…how sweet," Stella cooed sarcastically, entering our room. She twirled some of her hair around her finger. "Bloom and Sky, sitting in a tree…" I grabbed a pillow off my bed and chucked it at her. Stella caught it, laughing.

Now, FYI, your probably wondering what this whole thing is about and who Sky is. Well, Sky is…I guess my friend. He had asked me out (through texting, which is, as Stella put it 'absolutely unacceptable', because it should be done in person), and I had said I'd think about it. And believe me I did, because Sky is basically my guy best friend. We'll hang out, swap songs for our iPod's, and of course, the occasional prank on Riven (he never did get over the time I dumped a whole plate of sweet and sour chicken in his hair while Sky had him distracted). But anyway, I dropped by his apartment the next day to tell him I wouldn't mind, only to find him kissing some other girl. I later found out through Stella's boyfriend Brandon that it was his ex-girlfriend Diaspro, who had 'coincidentally' moved into the same apartment complex. Sky and I have been kind of awkward since then, but we do our best to get along, even though I can't stand Diaspro, and neither can my friends. I don't really know what to think when it comes to him, but Stella keeps telling me we'd be great together (even though her last idea of a cute couple was Musa and this guy Jared who work's at a CD store we always go to. They went out for five days before Musa called it off.).

Anyway, I came back to reality, courtesy of Stella throwing the pillow back at me. I put it back on the bed, and stood up. "So are we going?" I walked to the door, only to have it blocked by Stella's arm.

"Not so fast." she said, wagging her finger at me with every syllable. The only other sources of noise in the room were the many gold bracelets clinking together on her skinny wrist. "What did Sky want?"

"Does it matter?" I asked, trying my best to hide the nervousness in my voice. Unlike my blond friend, I couldn't make up lies that fast.

"Yes it does. What did he say?" Stella seemed persistent. Just my luck. Luckily, Flora had my back, even if she didn't realize it.

"Goodness Stella, hasn't Bloom been through enough? Leave her be."

Stella rolled her eyes, but dropped her arm to her side. Suddenly, a stroke of genius hit me. "Actually Stell, Sky invited me to lunch today."

"Good for you, sweetie." Flora smiled, walking out the door. Stella however, looked at me a little persistently.

"Where to?" she asked.

"The Italian place on Fifth Avenue."

"When?"

"At noon."

Stella smiled. "Well, I hope you have fun." I hated when she used that implied tone on me. But as quickly as it came, Stella turned back to her usual self. "Oh well. Anyway, we should get going. Being on time is a must for a date. Oh, and I love that shirt. If you want, you can borrow my gold sandals. They'd go great with it."

"Oh…great. Thanks Stella." I walked hastily out of the room and down the hall to Stella's room to get the shoes. I'm going on a date with a killer and all my best friend cares about is proper date rules and matching shoes. Although I knew it wasn't her fault she was acting like this. After all, she though I was going to be with Sky. I sighed. This was going to be a fun day.

**Roxy**

"This is a good idea how?" I asked, looking at the blond haired boy who was lying on top of the counter (even though he's been told a thousand times not to), currently polishing some of the glasses. The morning rush had ended about a half hour ago, and no one ever comes into the restaurant for the next hour and a half. And once my blond friend showed up early to help clear tables before his shift, Tecna and Helia had bolted for home (not that I blame them, of course).

"Relax," he said, "All we need to do is cover for a friend of mine over at another restaurant. It's just from noon to two. What could happen?"

"Sky," I reminded him, "We have the same shift _here_. How can we be in two places at once?"

"That question is easily answered." Another male voice added. I looked back at the door and sighed, then turned back to Sky. "Riven and Timmy? _Riven and Timmy_? You want them to cover?!"

"Great to see you too," Riven muttered.

"Come on Roxy, we can do it." Timmy added.

"Handle a lunch rush alone? On a Saturday?!"

"Only for two hours." Sky said again. "Come on, Ophir's a good friend of mine. It's another waiter job. We get in, get out, get _paid_. What's the problem?"

I glanced at the three boys who were looking at me. Being outnumbered sucks. "Just because my dad owns this place doesn't mean I can always flash the 'get out of jail' card all the time. Get it?"

Sky and Timmy smiled. I grabbed the dirty dishes off the table and walked behind the counter. "I'm going to regret this." I added under my breath.

"Probably." Riven smirked. I glared at him.

"Don't listen to him," Sky said, jumping down from the counter, "It'll be fine."

"Can you at least tell me where were going?"

"That Italian restaurant on Fifth Avenue. It's only a few blocks from here." Sky replied, walking back to the kitchen with the dishes I had handed him.

**Bloom**

"Do I have some good news for you." I glanced up at the doctor. He was showing me and my friends some of the X-rays of my leg. He was really a nice guy. You know, one of those middle-aged doctors who's probably in better shape than some of your friends. Plus he was nice. You don't see doctors like that in New York very often. "It looks like there's only a slight sprain to your ankle. Nothing serious, and if you take it easy, you should be fine in a few days."

"That's great." Flora smiled. "And the other wounds?"

"Actually, I have a few more questions on those I want to ask." He glanced at Flora and Stella. "In private."

"We get it, we get it. Don't worry, were out!" Stella said as she got up and walked out of the room, Flora at her heels.

I turned to the doctor. "I'm ok, right?"

"What? Oh yes, yes, your fine! I'm just, and please forgive me if it seems I'm prying, but some of the cuts and bruises you have seem almost…intentional."

I blushed. "Yeah…"

"Care to tell me why?"

I glanced up at the guy. He seemed to be taking this whole thing very seriously, as though he might walk out of here and call the cops. "It's nothing really…I just ended up getting mugged last night. I tried fighting back…stupid idea."

His expression softened a little. "I see. Well, I can't say I haven't heard that before. There are some ruthless gangs around here. Have you notified the authorities?"

"Yes. All my credit cards are suspended, and I'm getting a new driver's license in a few weeks."

"All right. Now, back to your wounds. You should probably rest that ankle for at least twenty-four hours. Nothing else is really major, I'd simply suggest letting everything be."

"Ok. Just one question."

"Yes?"

"Can I put a little weight on it today? I'm planning on meeting a…um" what would be the correct word? Murderer? No. Swallowing my ideas, I said, "I'm meeting a friend for lunch today."

"And you planned on walking?"

"Well, there's a subway near there, so I can always use that."

He seemed hesitant. "Well, I guess if you put minimal pressure on your foot…you'll be fine." He smiled. "Now get out of here. And have fun."

I stood up and shook his hand. "Thank you." _I'll try to have fun. Oh, I'll try._

**Roxy**

It didn't take long to get from my family's restaurant to the Italian place Sky was talking about. When we got there we met a guy at the back entrance, presumably Ophir. He seemed in a rush, but he still managed to seem friendly and shake my hand when Sky introduced me.

"Thanks for the help today."

"Didn't really have much of a choice." I muttered.

Sky laughed. "That's Roxy speak for, 'No problem, I'm glad to help.'"

Ophir laughed, too. "Well, I appreciate the translation. Anyway, there are some extra uniforms in the closet; first door on the left. Two of my friends are working right now, too. Their names are Andy and Mark, and they'll help out, too."

"Sounds good." Sky nodded.

"Great," Ophir said, slipping on a brown jacket, "Thanks again, you two." Ophir walked out of the back alley and down the street to the subway station before disappearing underground.

"Well," I broke the silence, "Let's get to it."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Even though Ophir's directions were quick, they were accurate. We grabbed some uniforms (Which were a surprisingly good fit), and met Andy, Mark, and Ryo (who works in the kitchen). All three of them were friendly, and we talked for a few. The three are aspiring musicians, and are working on a record deal like my friend, Musa. Once that was out of the way, we got a basic crash course in how the place worked, and I was surprised to find how different it was. Though some people don't know it, each restaurant has its own way of doing things. But anyway, by the time the place got crowded, we were all breezing through.

"Will that be all, miss?" I asked.

The straight haired brunette turned from the window. "Spaced out. What?"

"Is that all?"

"Huh, oh yeah, that's it." She said, turning back and staring out the window.

I gave a quiet sigh. I hated customers like this. "Ok, then. That'll be $7.35-"

The girl set a twenty in my hand before I could finish. "Keep the change." She said, standing up and walking out the door. I watched her go. Sky walked over to me.

"Weird one?" he asked.

"Yeah. Paid me double what she owed, wouldn't stop staring out the window, and was wearing a sweater over a _mini-skirt_."

"Not much help with girls' fashion," he said as he started clearing the table, "But are you supposed to wear mini-skirts in September?"

"No."

"Roxy!" I heard Andy yell.

"Better get back to work." Sky said.

"Yeah." I rolled my eyes slightly, then headed over to the hostess podium. Putting on my best 'waitress smile' (which means fake), I turned to the guy who was waiting. "Can I help you?"

The guy turned, and I got a better view of him. He was pretty handsome; long, red blond hair and gold eyes. He was smart, too, because he immediately saw through my fake smile. "I'm actually waiting for someone, thanks."

"Ok, when you're ready, just let me know."

The guy gave me a knowing smile, or smirk, I couldn't tell. "You know, as entertaining as this is, I can take five minutes without a happy attitude." I knew he meant it nicely, even with the sarcastic tone.

Without a second thought, I dropped the smile. "God thank you." The guy laughed. "Seriously," I added, "your girlfriend must love you."

He smiled. "I don't think 'girlfriend' would be the best term."

"Almost girlfriend?" I suggested.

"Something like that." He said. _Ring_. He reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone. "Oh crap…I've got to take this."

"Ok. Nice talking to you."

"You too." he said, as I turned back to help Sky clear some tables, and the guy went outside to talk.

**Bloom**

I walked up the stairs of the subway station to the brightness outside, keeping minimal weight on my sore ankle. Only glancing around, I already recognized the area I was in (and had been to many times before), and as if to prove my point, I saw the familiar 'Fifth Ave.' street sign on the corner, the weeds growing around it in the concrete cracks. This was the right place. I took a deep breath. It was now or never. I stepped forward and began walking toward the restaurant. I couldn't believe I was actually doing this. I think at this point the only thing keeping me sane was the idea that Baltor wouldn't show up. Maybe he chickened out, or maybe he was busy –something like that-, and I was worrying over nothing. Maybe…

"Yeah, I know." Shoot. I knew that voice. As I turned the corner, I saw Baltor sitting on one of the benches outside the restaurant. I forced a smile and waved at him. He smiled back. I walked up to him as he finished his conversation. "Yeah……Relax, it's covered, ok…yes….Yes!...Look, I've got to go, I'll call you back later…bye." He ended the call and stood up. "Wow, you're here."

"Well, you did invite me." I remarked sarcastically. "And I love Italian food."

He smirked. "I know. Your second favorite food next to pizza. Extra cheesy, right?"

"Stalker." I said in a sing-song voice.

"Oh, just for that, your paying."

"But Baltor I-" I stopped when I noticed the noticed the look on his face. I could tell he was joking. "I hate you." I said half-heartedly, and with a slight laugh.

"Ah," he said in a fake tone, placing a hand over his heart, "I'm touched." We both laughed. "Come on."

We walked into the place and got a table. After ordering drinks, I decided to try out my luck. "So, what do you do out here? Work and all?"

"Oh, not much, basically just odd jobs all over the city. Nothing big yet. You?"

"Same. I was going to apply to the restaurant a friend of mine works at, and if I can't get in there, Vanessa told me I could work at the flower shop on weekends."

"Nice. But I thought it took an hour and a half to get there."

I shook my head. "I can get to Gardenia in a half hour by subway." Gardenia, by the way, is a nice suburb a little ways out of New York City. After my parents died (were killed….you know) Daph and I moved there to live with Mike and Vanessa.

Baltor nodded. "Sounds like your set."

"Yeah, just as long as you ignore the fact that one of your friends is constantly trying to give you money, even though you've told her a thousand times your fine."

"Hey, if you don't want the money, _I'll _take it."

I smiled. Perfect opportunity. "Let me guess, your boss doesn't pay well?"

"Isn't _that_ an understatement." Baltor said dryly. He wasn't smiling anymore. "It's not bad though, it's just not good."

"Sounds like fun." I said, raising my eyebrows.

"Oh loads." We were silent until our drinks came and we took our orders. I swallowed my pride (again) and decided to push my luck (again). "Sorry. I didn't mean to hit a nerve or anything."

Baltor shook his head. "I swear you were abducted by aliens."

"Why? Because I'm trying to be nice?" my voice was strained slightly.

"Oh, please. Even _you_ have to admit your being really nice to me. Come on, what's up?"

"Nothing." I mentally cursed at myself. The answer came out way to fast, like I was hiding some secret I didn't want him to know about (because if Baltor found out the only reason I came here was to get information, I'd be killed…not literally, of course, but you get the idea).

Of course, he noticed. Eyebrow raised, he put his elbow up on the table and rested his head in his hand. Even though I hated to admit it, at that moment, Baltor looked…kind of sexy. "Oh really? Nothing at all?"

"No." Another quick answer. I'm in trouble.

Baltor smirked slightly. "You know, you're a horrible liar."

God, he looked hot then….wait, did I just say that!? Desperate to try and stop thinking like that (too late!), I slightly copied his position, putting my arms on the table and resting my head on top of my hands. "Maybe I'm trying to be." I felt semi-satisfied with the comeback.

Baltor rolled his eyes, using his other hand to stir the straw in his drink. "Maybe your trying to get me off this subject with old comeback lines."

"Damn" I muttered. He was unfortunately good at this game.

"Pardon?" He asked, leaning a bit closer to me. Considering it was one of those small café tables, his face was surprisingly close to mine.

Much to my luck then -or karma, I'm not really sure which- one of the waitresses hit my chair, knocking both of us to the ground. I couldn't really see her, just a burst of pink hair. The dishes she had on her tray clanged as they hit the ground, and the margarita glass she had shattered on the tile floor. "Oh my gosh," her oddly familiar voice cried, "I am so sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going…"

"That's fine." I said, rubbing my sore ankle dulling the slight pain that had come back, "Here, let me help you."

"Oh no, that's fine." But I was already grabbing plates while the girl picked up some the glass shards of the . "Thanks." She said, a little embarrassed.

"No problem." I replied, taking the plates and putting them on the tray. At the same time, the girl was putting the stem of the glass on the tray. What followed was like that scene you see in the movies where the two main characters who are supposed to be long lost twins look up and finally see each other and scream. The only difference was that neither of us screamed. Because when I looked up, I wasn't looking at a twin – I was looking at Roxy, one of my closest friends.

**Roxy**

Talk about weird. I couldn't believe that of all the people to run into in this city, it was Bloom. It's a small world after all (geez, I sound like Stella)! However, Bloom looked a bit more…shocked. "Hey." I greeted, trying to sound friendly, as I put the rest of the glass on the tray. I had no idea why she seemed so freaked out.

It took me about three seconds to figure it out.

"Bloom are you ok?" I stood up, clutching the tray, and got a shock. It was the guy I had talked to earlier! And Bloom was with him!

"…Yeah Baltor," Bloom said, taking his outstretched hand and getting up off the floor. I watched, my eyes slightly wide. Were they dating? If so, Stella had no idea –she would have texted the planet by now, or at least us and Sky- Oh my god, Sky!

"Hey, Roxy, are you ok?" Speaking of Sky. I turned quickly at his voice, and at the same time, elbowed Bloom into the guy's –Baltor's- arms. Her face was then close to his chest and shielded by her hair. I had made it look like a simple mistake (even though it _so_ wasn't), and prayed it would work.

"Oh yeah Sky, I'm fine." I said, my voice cool. With a single glance, I could tell Bloom had caught on, because she hadn't moved away from Baltor yet. "But you know, could you take this back for me?"

"Um…sure, Roxy." Sky sounded a bit uncertain as he took my tray and turned back. I inwardly sighed with relief. Crisis avoided – for now.

"Again, I'm so sorry."

Bloom moved away and smiled. "Oh that's ok. No real harm, right?"

I had to talk to her. I _needed _to talk to her. So after a quick once over, I had a plan. "I guess not…but oh, your jeans!"

Bloom looked down, catching sight of the pasta sauce on the flair. "Oh! Man, Stell's going to kill me…" she trailed off and turned to Baltor. "I'm going to go try and wash this off."

Baltor nodded. "Go crazy." Bloom gave him a slight joking glare, and walked off to restrooms. I gave a small nod to Baltor as he sat back down, and then headed back to the kitchen. Sky was discarding the shattered glass. He turned his attention to me when I entered. "What was with you?"

"Huh?" I asked, trying to sound confused.

"Back there. You were acting off."

"Oh, well you know I hate to be a klutz in front of customers."

Sky raised an eyebrow, basically saying 'Come on, what are you hiding?' to me. I racked my brain for ideas. I could always tell him that I had seen Bloom, but I had a bad feeling Bloom wouldn't be very happy with me, even though I knew about the whole Diaspro thing (take a wild guess which gossip queen told me _that_), and- wait! Man, I was on a streak today as I faked a sigh. "Fine, you caught me. I saw…well, thought I saw, Diaspro walking past the place. I know your trying to avoid her because you want to ask Bloom out and all…"

The lie obviously worked, because Sky looked freaked and grateful at the same time. "Oh. Great."

"Hey, here's an idea," I said, as I started walking out, "Why don't you switch places with Ryo? He can work on cleaning tables, and you work in here."

"Hey, that's not a bad idea." Sky was saying as I walked out. I made a quick dash to my right and walked into the restrooms. Bloom was on the sink counter, trying to get the pasta sauce off her jeans. She didn't hear me come in.

"So are those really Stella's jeans?"

Bloom's head shot up at my voice. She gave a slight smile. "No, not really. But they're Abercrombie, so they're not totally cheap."

I nodded and hopped up next to her. "So…" I started slowly, "Who's your new guy?"

"No one." She sounded angry, "Just a guy from back home that I ran into yesterday. He asked me out for lunch."

"And you went?"

Bloom sighed. "It's complicated. Really, really complicated."

"I'm sure." We were silent for a few minutes. Bloom, apparently satisfied with her jeans, threw the paper towels away.

"Hey Roxy."

"Yeah?"

"Please tell me when you said 'Sky', you didn't mean our Sky."

I gave a sheepish smile. "Sorry. I did mean him. Were covering for some friend of his –Ophir- while he's busy. Sky mentioned something about him getting a new job and trying to work out hours."

"Is that even allowed? To work at different restaurants?"

I shrugged. "Probably not. But, Dad's at home today and the manager of this place is never around."

"But aren't you guys supposed to be working at the Fruity Music Bar (the name of my Dad's place) now?" Bloom asked.

"Riven and Timmy are covering."

Bloom gave a small laugh. "You're dead. You know that, right?"

"Tell me about it." I laughed. "I told Sky I fell because I thought I saw Diaspro looking in the window. He's switching jobs with Ryo so he'll probably be in the kitchen until the 'coast is clear'. And I take it I'm not supposed to tell anyone about this? Especially Sky or miss Stella-the-gossip-girl?"

Bloom gave a grateful smile and hugged me. "Thanks, Roxy. I owe you one."

"No problem."

**Bloom**

The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. Roxy had probably given Sky a good scare, because I didn't see him at all. She managed to slip me a note about ten minutes later, telling me her Dad had come back to check on things, and wasn't very happy to find she and Sky bailed. The manager of Italian place –who had obviously been in contact with Roxy's dad-, came out about a minute later and dragged her back to kitchen. The only glimpse I caught of Sky was when he and Roxy walked by the window to the subway station. I had a feeling they were going to get it pretty bad. Sky's friend, too.

And speaking of friends, the rest of time with Baltor went…really well. Over lunch, we basically just compared New York stories –you'd be surprised what you hear. He told me about when he'd ended up in the Bronx doing an odd job and saw two guys in a little diner get into a fist fight over a mustard bottle (I laughed at that one. I mean, come on!). I didn't have anything that funny, so I told about when we were renovating out apartment and Stella spilled an entire gallon of green paint of Flora.

So, my original plan didn't really work out. I basically realized that as we walked out of the place at one thirty. But for some reason…I didn't really care.

"So, thanks for lunch. It was nice."

Baltor looked at me a little uncertainly at first, but finally smiled. "No problem. It was obviously my pleasure, considering I paid."

"Hey, what's a broke girl do?" I said with a shrug and a 'so help me' smile.

"Get money from a rich friend." I shook my head at his comment. It was just so…Baltor.

"I'll consider it, if it'll get you to shut up."

"Ouch." He smirked. "So, does this little lunch date mean were keeping in touch?"

"Hmm…" I said, pretending to be thinking hard about it. "Well, it's hard not to considering you've got my cell number." Baltor gave me that 'I know your not serious' look as I continued, "Tell you what…since you paid, and helped me out last night, maybe I'll keep in touch. Maybe."

"Oh, how generous of you," Baltor smiled sarcastically. He turned slightly to the window box near the restaurant, and picked a white flower. He turned back to me and held it out. "Consider this a token of my gratitude."

I laughed. "Why thank you." Baltor rolled his eyes, and yet again surprised me. He reached out, and carefully put the flower in my hair. I was totally stunned with the gesture…to say the least. While he was doing that, a few strands of my hair fell in front of my face –Baltor brushed them away. His fingers brushed my forehead, and I swear I felt my heart skip a beat.

He slowly dropped his hand to his side. "Then I guess your welcome."

That snapped me out of it. I smiled lightly. "See you later?" For some reason, the statement came out sounding like a question.

It was Baltor's turn to joke. "Maybe you will."

My smile broadened slightly as I turned around and walked toward the subway, fishing for my card. I passed one of the news paper carts, and I heard the radio as I passed; "All right, folks, what you just heard was _Ready or Not_, part of Cascada's newest album 'Evacuate the Dancefloor'. More from her and others coming up next, here, on Saturday, September 19, station…"

Any other time I heard that, I would have flipped, and not because I just realized the date; which also meant two days from now was _the day_. Any other day, I would have taken the flower in my hair and dropped it to the ground. But today –just for today- I left it in.

**Baltor**

I watched Bloom walk down the street, at the same time reaching up and touching the white flower in her hair. I inwardly sighed as I turned and walked in the other direction back to my car. As much as I knew I needed to think long and hard about what just happened, I shoved it to the back of my memory. It could wait one more day.

I sighed again as I heard my phone make that noise when it gets a new message. I grabbed it from my pocket and slid my screen up, watching the message come up.

_My friend couldn't find you. Probably to stupid too actually look. Anyway, call me with details. _

I really wanted to throw this thing right on the concrete and run. Run and never look back. But of course, that was a luxury I couldn't afford…yet. So, I did what I was supposed to do. I hit speed dial six and placed the phone to my ear, waiting for it to ring.

Speed dial six. 666. Just like the devil.

* * *

**Speed dial for the devil, huh? What's with Baltor, anyway? Wel....like I'm telling you now! _However, _if you are interested in finding out, click that big green button, leave a review, and add this to your story alert list. Go ahead, you know you want to (Plus it makes me write faster)! And just a little fact; Cascada does have a new album out (only on iTunes UK) with a song called _Ready or Not_. I can't wait for the US release!**

**AN: For anyone reading this a second time going 'This wasn't here before', your right. Apparently when writing the end of this chapter I had one of my 'duh' moments and switched the dates. Sorry to confuse anyone!**

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	6. September 21

**Summer goes by way to fast. It's not just me, right?**

**Ok, I had to make some minor changes to Chapter 5 because I wrote **_**September 20 **_**instead of the 19****th****. In case you didn't read my new update in the last chapter, I was apparently having one of those 'duh' moments. On we go! **

**Disclaimer: Wow, I don't own Winx Club. Shocker.**

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After the date (I guess that's what you could call it…) I headed back to my apartment to relax for the afternoon. Stella was practically jumping at me to answer questions about what happened. She thankfully forgot about it when Layla came back, apparently _really_ happy about something. So Stella left me alone and went to torment her instead. She finally worked it out of Layla; she had met a guy when she was grabbing new sneakers at the sport shop who asked her out (And turns out the guy was Sky's friend Ophir –small world, huh?). I also ended up taking the flower Baltor gave me and pressing it between the pages of one of my old yearbooks. I still have it…somewhere, anyway. I didn't really talk to Baltor the next day. And before I knew it, I woke up on September 21st, the nine year anniversary of my parents death.

Boy was that a day.

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Chapter 6: September 21st

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**Flora**

"Yo, can pass the coffee, Flo?" Musa asked me as she put one side of her hair up in her signature pigtails.

"Sure, here you go." I said, passing the pot to her.

"Thanks."

"So," Stella cut in, she seemed extremely energetic for so early in the morning, "Who else is excited for tonight?"

"I am. It's going to be an awesome night." Layla insisted, taking a sip of her juice. They were referring to the concert that we had tickets for tonight. The All-American Rejects were in Musa's top five favorite bands, and Stella had been kind enough to score us and the guys tickets.

"Oh and Layla…" Stella continued smugly, "I managed to swipe an extra ticket…and Ophir's phone number." Layla looked at her in shock. "I hope you don't mind that he's coming along."

"Stella!" Tecna shook her head, "Don't you think you should have asked Layla first?"

"Well Layla would have said no," she debated, "So I decided I should take the responsibility on myself."

"Yeah, because your match making skills are so perfect, Stell." Musa smirked.

"I guess there's no going back on it," Layla sounded a little happy with the news.

"Hey, speaking of news, has anyone seen Bloom this morning? I still haven't gotten _any_ info on the date with Sky!"

"Stella," I said, a little warningly, "Bloom's sleeping in today."

"Why? It's absolutely gorgeous out and we've got shopping to do!" Stella was so excited about tonight, she'd obviously forgotten about the date. Bloom had told us a few years ago that her parents had died on the day. She never gave details –of course we didn't press for them or anything, but she never was in a good mood today. She was usually quiet and out of it.

"Relax Stella," Layla insisted, "I'm sure if Bloom doesn't want to, one of us will come on your shopping expedition to find something to impress Brandon."

"Morning." A voice said. I turned around as Bloom walked into the kitchen, grabbing a cup and filling it with coffee. She had a slight smile on her face.

I smiled at her. "Hey sleepyhead. We were just -"

"Bloom, there you are!" Stella cut in, "I was wondering when you'd get up. This is sleeping late, even for you."

I notice Bloom cringe slightly. "Sorry. I guess I just needed some extra sleep."

"Well, I guess…anyway, we're all headed out shopping later to get some outfits for the concert tonight."

"Whoa, when did I agree to that?" Musa smiled.

"That's it, were only letting you drink decaf from now on, the caffeine is obviously messing with your head." Tecna added.

Bloom glanced up from stirring some creamer into her mug. "No thanks, Stell. I'm just going to hang today."

Stella looked shocked. "What? Since when do you turn down shopping?"

"Stella…" I said in a tone that I hoped would shut her up.

Bloom bit her lip. "I'm not in the mood today, Stella. I'll just wear something in my closet."

"Not in the mood for shopping? I've never heard of it." She insisted.

"Well you have now," Bloom sounded annoyed. My eyes widened slightly; this was going to end badly.

"Fine. But you at least have to give me some details about that date a few days ago."

"Stella now is not a good day." Bloom said, her voice strained.

Now Stella looked confused; I noticed out of the corner of my eye Musa looked ready to slap her. "Why is today so bad?"

"Just because!" Bloom slammed the mug down and stalked out of the room, grabbing her jacket off of the hook as she headed for the door. "I'm going out." With that she slammed the door.

Musa hit the back of Stella's head. "_What_ is wrong with you?!"

"Oh come on! What is everyone so angry about?"

"Stella, you're officially off the caffeine. Decaf only." Layla said as I grabbed my own jacket and went out the door after Bloom.

**Bloom**

I stalked to the end of the hall and jabbed the elevator call button. I could feel tears stinging in the back of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Of all the things for Stella to forget… So much for being best friends. I knew I should cut her some slack - especially considering she _had _been hyped up on sugar and caffeine – but I couldn't bring myself to try at the moment. I love Stella as a friend, really I do, but I swear sometimes she is such a little…

"Bloom!" a voice yelled. I turned around to face the owner of the voice, her face concerned. "Are you ok, sweetie?"

I took a deep breath and forced a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine Flora. I just got a little upset is all."

"You had a right to be upset. But you know Stella wouldn't hurt you on purpose, right?"

"I know. I just need some time to cool down."

"You want some company? Anything to avoid shopping with Stella." Flora smiled lightly.

"As much as I'd like to save you, I'd rather alone." I replied, my voice tinted with desperation.

Flora nodded. "Ok. But just to tell you, we're all leaving for the concert at five. Are you still coming?"

I glanced down at my watch. 10:07. "I'll probably be back by then." The elevator chimed and slid open. Flora nodded at me as I stepped inside and hit the lobby button. She smiled and gave a little wave before turning around and heading back to the apartment. I watched her until the doors slid closed. When they did I rested against the back of the elevator and watched the scenery as I went down the eleven floors to the ground (the whole elevator is made of glass just like the wall in the living room of the apartment).

And tried not to burst into tears.

I mean –who could blame me? The anniversary of your parents' deaths; it's a pretty good reason to want to break down. I managed to keep calm though, and decided to go over to Central Park and try to walk out my problems. At that point in time, it seemed like the best idea.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

I stayed in the lower loop of the park, not wanting to get so far away that it would cost a ton of money to get a cab home. After about an hour I had ended up near the Pond after going through Heckscher Playground and passing Wollman Rink. The area was pretty deserted for a Monday, the only other people were a group of joggers who were passing by over the bridge. I sat down under one of the trees near the lake's edge, taking in the peaceful scenery of the place.

My mind drifted off as the scenery brought me back to being seven years old and going to the park on Saturdays with my family in Colorado. Going to the little park in our town – Fort Collins – was always what my Dad would call 'family bonding time', which Daphne always hated. She always insisted she was too old to be there. Mom would roll her eyes and Dad would smile and say that we weren't going to be together forever, so we might as well make the most of the time we had. I felt tears springing in the back of my eyes –if only Dad had known how true that was.

Now that there wasn't anyone around, I didn't try holding back my tears, and I felt ready to finally break down and cry for all I was worth.

_I'm only up, when your not down, don't wanna fly if your still on the ground…_

I sighed at the ringtone that informed me I had a new text. I grabbed my phone and flipped it open. I got a little pop-up.

_U there?_

I glared at the message. This was, without a doubt, the _worst_ day of the year for me, and the reason it all happened wanted to talk to me? About twenty different ideas of how to reply popped into my head (and most of them were things Riven would yell when he got cut off in traffic.). But, managing to keep my cool, I typed back.

_Buzz off, Baltor_

I knew as I pressed send that he wasn't going to do what I said. And lo and behold, a few seconds later, my cell phone started ringing. I already knew who it was, so I didn't bother looking at the caller ID before picking up. "I said buzz off."

"Well good morning to you too," I heard Baltor reply sarcastically, "What's up with you, today?"

"Like you wouldn't know!" I spat into the phone.

"Whoa, calm down! Why are you so upset and what do I have to do with it?"

Surprising myself, I took his advice, taking a few deep breaths. After that I realized what he'd after that. I was silent for a minute. "Do you really not know?"

"Well, it's not your birthday…or mine…so I can't say I do. Am I supposed to?"

I sighed. "It's September twenty-first."

"Oh, of course. Almost every living person has a bad day on September twenty-first. You know some people think it's caused by aliens. Millions of internet articles on it."

"Baltor! I'm being serious!" I practically yelled, trying to use my anger to keep my tears from falling. "It's not funny! My friend Stella did the exact same thing and I'm about ready to kill her for it…" I could tell my voice was breaking.

"Ok, Bloom, ok…" Baltor said, his sarcasm gone, I could tell he was trying to get me to calm down, "I'm sorry. Now what's going on?"

"I…well; I don't feel like talking over the phone." I said, feeling my voice steady out a little.

I heard Baltor give a low chuckle. "Then tell me now."

Huh? Now I was seriously confused. "What do you mean?"

"Turn around." I heard a voice say from behind me.

I slowly dropped the phone from my ear and looked at the screen. _Call Disconnected_ flashed on the screen before returning to my main menu. Realization hit me, and I turned my head from my view of the lake to the base of the tree I was sitting under. Baltor looked slightly amused at my shocked expression. "Are you going to tell me?" he asked, arms crossed, and his phone in his right hand.

I stared at him for a few more seconds. "What are you doing here?"

"Walking around, thought I'd drop in."

"How did you know? This place is huge."

He shrugged. "You told me on Saturday that you liked this part of Central Park best, and when we were in fourth grade, you'd always eat lunch at that table under that huge shady tree. I just figured if I looked hard enough…red stands out a little from green, you know; makes it kind of easy."

I shook my head. "Your lying. You followed me here, didn't you?"

Baltor laughed and uncrossed his arms, sliding his phone into the pocket of his faded jeans. "What would I earn from that, Princess?" I was taken back a little; Baltor hadn't called me 'princess' since I was nine. The old endearment felt strangely comforting and painful at the same time.

"Maybe you just want me gone, too." I suggested, turning my head back and facing the lake. I heard grass crunching as Baltor walked over to me and dropped onto the ground next to me. He opened the last two buttons on his dark waist-length coat, letting it blow open as a breeze came up, revealing his white shirt. "I give up. Do you know something I don't?"

I gave a long sigh, resting my head on my knees. "Do you know what today is?"

"September twenty-first? We had this discussion about a minute and a half ago, remember; aliens, internet articles…ringing any bells?"

"Not that," my voice was barely above a whisper, "My…my parents. They died ten years ago today. Some jerk who was running from the cops hit them with his car." I turned to face him. "Ringing any bells?" I mocked. Baltor looked –for once, totally speechless. "He wasn't even old enough to drive," I continued, feeling tears stinging in the back of my eyes, "But he _had_ to; he had just robbed a gas station with some other kids…he even knew the car was my parents but he hit it anyway. You _had_ to."

Baltor still looked shocked. "Bloom-" he began, reaching out and putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't even," I replied, shrugging away from his touch, "You _killed_ them. I fought with my mom right before that, I told her she had no idea who I was or what I wanted to do with my life. And now she's gone; I couldn't even apologize. And when I saw you again," I took a shaky breath, "I was crying so hard…and you just _stared_ at me. Looked at me like I was dirt and walked on. All I could think of was that you didn't care what you had taken away from me; you only cared about yourself, not getting into jail. I'm a wreck whenever this day rolls around…and you did it." Baltor didn't interrupt me. He just watched me as I spoke, his eyes reflecting something I couldn't make out. The tears in my eyes finally fell, running down my cheeks. I hated crying in front of him, but I couldn't help it now. "You did it," I repeated, "It's your fault…"

He looked at me for a second through the pained expression on his face, as though debating something in his head. I waited for his to laugh and say something sarcastic about how I had years to get over it, or that a princess doesn't cry. But no, Baltor didn't do any of that. Instead, he did the last thing I ever expected; Baltor pulled me into his arms and held me.

It took me a second to realize what had happened, and once I did, I immediately began to struggle. "Baltor, let go!"

"Listen to me," Baltor insisted, his voice surprisingly calm, "Just stop for a second and listen to me, Bloom." I only struggled harder. But somehow Baltor managed to keep a hold of me. "I know this sounds crazy, but you need to believe me. The whole deal with your parents wasn't my fault. I was…"

"You were what?" I spat, the tears still falling.

He gave a slightly frustrated sigh. "Never mind. But the point is, I didn't mean to do what I did. If I could change one thing in my life, Bloom….I'd stop it. All of it. The hurt and pain I caused you and Daphne and everyone….I'd stop it. But I know I can't; we both know." I slowly stopped struggling in his arms, letting Baltor talk. He barley noticed as he continued, "So, I'm going to do the next best thing; somehow, I'm going to prove to you that it wasn't all my fault. Somehow, I'll prove it to you."

It seemed like an eternity before I spoke –even though it was probably about seven seconds. The words in my mouth seemed to coming from somewhere I didn't know, but I felt they were true. "I believe you."

He laughed, apparently not hearing what I said for a few seconds. "Well, I don't care if you believe me or not because I…wait, what did you just say?"

I smiled and shifted in his arms so I was staring right into his gold eyes. "I said I believe you. I may be losing my mind, but I have a feeling your telling me the truth."

He held my gaze and smiled. "I never go back on my word."

"Don't I know." I wiped the tears away from my eyes. "Sorry for breaking down and all…"

"No," he cut me off, "I think you've wanted to do that for a while, huh?"

I laughed for what felt like the first time in a long time, "Yeah, maybe…" I trailed off, turning back to the view, resting my head on his chest. We stayed like that for a few minutes, just looking at the view. For some reason I felt a sense of peace inside. I mean, I had done something like this with Sky before, and I had felt awkward the whole time. But being here and having Baltor hold me felt…I don't know…right.

"Come on," I said finally, getting to my feet.

He followed the suit, standing and grabbing my bag in the process. "Where are we going?" he asked, handing me my stuff.

"Well, I just got one of my credit card back, and there's a Starbucks near here. I didn't have any coffee this morning, and I'm in desperate need of caffeine. And company." I added, giving him a smile. "You interested? It's my turn to pay, anyway."

"Hmm…free coffee. Not so sure about the company part." He smirked when he saw my reaction. "Kidding. That sounds good."

"Perfect." I said, and we started walking. I quickly set my phone on silent, figuring I'd be back in time for the concert. And besides, my friends could wait for a while.

**Well, that's about it for now. Now to go and try to review for my Spanish class tomorrow…(No hablo Espaol!)**

**And speaking of reviews… green button about three inches below this. You know what to do! **


	7. A Sister Calling

**Ok, so I'm freaking out right now because I just heard that Baltor might be back for the last half of season 4! I don't care why he's back or if he's a good or bad guy, all I care about is the fact that he might be back! My best friend and I were flipping out at school over it. Of course I realize this is a big if, but I'll take it over nothing. New episodes air September 21****st**** in Italy (I just realized the connection. Weird, huh?). So, just to burn off my adrenaline (and sugar…can't forget the sugar), I got home and started typing this. And as always, thanks to all reviewers, keep 'em coming!**

* * *

Ever since I was little, Daphne and I have been really close. Even now, living on different sides of the country; we always tell each other everything.

Now what I'm getting at is the fact that as I walked through Central Park with Baltor, I realized that I couldn't tell my friends about this, but I also knew it would be easy to keep this under wraps for a while. Just drop lies here and there, and steer clear of our usual hangouts. Because I knew Stella would go nuts, and immediately call up Sky and tell him I'd found a new boyfriend (which I hadn't –Baltor and I weren't dating), and he'd get pissed or upset or a nasty combination of the two; and I actually did feel like keeping my guy best friend. However, I knew for a fact that Daphne would figure this out much faster then Stella or anyone else. How long it would be, I had no idea. The answer?

A couple hours.

* * *

Chapter 7: A Sister Calling

* * *

**Bloom**

I walked out of the Starbucks near Central Park, feeling better than I had all day. I could tell by the sun it was mid afternoon, which meant I had been there for at least two hours. Baltor and I had just sat and talked, mostly about the stuff we used to do when we were kids; the games, the stupid stunts, the bets (It turns out I still owe him a dollar twenty five from a bet we made when he was fourteen and I was ten.). But the weird thing was…I had fun. A lot of fun.

As I walked toward the subway station (there was no way I walking home; my ankle had just started feeling better), I grabbed my phone, remembering I had put it on silent. I had three voicemails. Hitting call the call button, I noticed a nice dark blue convertible pull up beside me. The passenger window rolled down, and I heard a voice yell, "You sure you don't want a lift home?"

"I'm sure Baltor!" I called back.

"Fine, but if I find you in an alley, I'm leaving you."

I laughed. "It's a deal. See you later!" The car window rolled up and Baltor drove off, darting through a light that had just changed to red. He gunned the intersection and made it through, pulling it off it true New York style (which means cars had screeched to a halt and almost hit him before they honked or flipped him off).

"You have three unheard messages," the automated voice at the other end of the line said, "First message." The voice changed from a fake one to a familiar one. "Bloom, you there? Can you hear me? Pick up!" I heard Stella say, "Well, your probably avoiding me; I totally deserve it. I just wanted to say I'm really sorry about this morning. I didn't realize what had happened until Musa almost killed me…but, I also called to say were leaving for the concert and your still not back, so I wanted to make sure your ok. Sky has your tickets, and I hope you can find us. Later."

I found myself nodding through the whole message as though Stella could see me. I deleted the voicemail and made a mental note that I really needed to apologize too for being so horrible to her, too. The next message came up. "Hey Bloom, its Sky," I found myself tensing a little, until I heard the message go on, "I'm really sorry, but I can't go to the concert tonight. Me and Roxy had…well, I guess you could say we had a little bit of adventure yesterday, and now were stuck with an all day shift. Trust me, you have no idea what we got ourselves into." I shook my head; if only Sky knew. "Anyway, if you still want the tickets just come by the Fruity Music Bar and get them. If not, I'll talk to you later." Well, there's one way out of the concert. I was kind of relived; I didn't feel like going anyway.

"Hola chica," I broke into a grin as I walked down the subway entrance steps, "Estoy me, duh! I'm so bored right now; Diana's working a morning shift at the surf shop for our friend Dwayne. He's sick and were all joking around saying he has the swine flu. Anyway, just caught a glimpse at the calendar date and, ahem, wanted to check in with you. I've got a 6:15 shift down there today, so anytime before 6:00 I'll probably answer. Adios!"

I swiped my subway card and entered the station, the familiar felling of wind from the trains around me. I hit call back, and listened to Boulevard of Broken Dreams (huge Green Day fan), as I waited for Daphne to pick up. "Hello?" a voice cut off the chorus of the song.

"Hola me hermana, como estas?" I asked.

I heard my sister laugh. "Is that the only thing you can say in Spanish?"

"Besides El Pollo Loco, yeah." I shot back with a laugh, "We can't all major in foreign language." That's actually true. Daphne is fluent in five different languages; English, Spanish, French, Italian and German, and currently learning Japanese. The girl is a human translator; Baltor used to say we'd have to take foreign language for the rest of our lives just to understand half of what Daphne says.

"Yeah, I guess not," Daphne said thoughtfully, "But you should. Anyone else who takes foreign language seemed so nerdy."

"Just your type," I joked, absently taking a dollar out of my pocket and dropping it into the open guitar case of a boy who was playing 'Bad Day'. He grinned at me and continued playing. "Sooo what have you been up to today?"

"Nothing, much," she replied, "Di got home a few hours ago, and we headed down to Newport to mess around on the boardwalk. We ate frozen bananas and won one of those huge stuffed bears in the arcade."

I laughed as I leaned against a column, waiting for the subway to arrive. "Every six year olds dream."

"Oh you should have seen the look this little boy was giving me," Daphne trailed off, "And what has my favorite sister been up too today?"

"I'm your _only_ sister, Daph."

"Same difference. What'd you do?"

"Well it didn't start out well…"

"What happened?" Daph asked, a trace of concern in her voice.

I sighed. "Stella was on a sugar high so she forgot. I snapped at her and stormed off. But the rest of the day was good." I quickly added. "I hung out with-" I stopped short, suddenly remembering who I was talking to.

"With who?" The concern turned to interest.

"Oh, um…just a friend of mine." I said, trying to sound convincing.

"Oh really?" Daphne said slyly. "Is this person 'just a friend', or a certain blonde haired boy with a three letter name?"

"Daphne! Not Sky!"

"Plus you can still use three letters to describe him; H-o-t."

"You're not funny!"

"I'm just making suggestions. Am I on the right track?"

"If he's so h-o-t hot, why don't _you_ date him?" I said irritably.

"Because long distance relationships never work, chica." Daphne chided me, "Don't you watch the movies?"

"Yeah," I said sarcastically as I heard the familiar screech of brakes in the distant tunnels, "They never find the body of the girl until the final scene."

"Ha ha ha," she said sarcastically, "So was it him?"

"Allow me to answer so it's the same in any language; no."

"Okay, okay," Daphne sounded disappointed.

"Are you and Stella in it together to get us together?" I asked with slight sarcasm, as the car pulled up. I stepped forward onto it and grabbed hold of a pole. There were only a few other people on the car.

"No, but I guess we might as well be," I could picture Daphne saying that while twisting one of her dark brown locks around her finger.

"Seriously Daphne, there is nothing going on between me and Sky; were just friends. Nothing more!"

"You enjoy ruining my fun, don't you?"

"Sorry. One of the kicks I still have in life."

"Well, I say I get five questions about this guy." Daph loved games like this.

"Um…okay."

"It's a guy, right?"

"Yes, it's a guy."

"Is he cute?"

Daphne knew I could never lie…especially about guys, so I simply leaned against the pole. "Absolutely _gorgeous_." I breathed, finally admitting to someone how I felt.

"Uh huh. Do I know him?"

"Oh well…you've heard of him." I said hesitantly.

"No, I mean do I _know_ _him_, know him?"

"You guys have met…"

"Not very specific, but I'll take it. Hmm…is he British?"

I rolled my eyes. Daphne had a thing for British boys ever since she watched David Tennant on _Doctor Who_ (apparently if Sky was British I'd be marrying him; no questions asked). "No Daphne, he's not British."

"What's his name?"

I froze. "You had five questions."

"Technically I just asked you to elaborate one, so I have one left."

"It was still a question."

"But it wasn't _fair_, Bloom. So I get a bonus one; name?"

"Since when is that a rule?"

Daphne was silent. "You don't want to tell me." She said as though stating a fact.

"Daph…"

"It _is _Sky!"

"Will you knock it off! It isn't Sky!" I glanced out as the doors opened; the next stop was me.

"Then just tell me!" she sounded exasperated, "Geez, girl, I'm your sister. As long as he's not illegal or wanted for killing anyone, I'm good."

"Well he not any of those…specifically," I added under my breath so Daphne couldn't hear me. Finally, I gave in; I had to tell _somebody_ what was going on. "Ok fine, I'll talk, but first I get a question."

"Fair deal."

"I've been wondering –you know, being the day and all, have you, um…"

"Have I what?"

I took a deep breath and said (probably faster than any human before me). "Have-you-talked-to-Baltor-at-all-since-the-whole-thing-happened?"

There was a pause at the other end of the line. "A language I can understand, please." Sighing, I repeated the question slowly. When I did, it got deathly quiet. For a second I though Daphne had hung up. Suddenly, I heard her exhale sharply. "No." she said, her voice tense, "Besides the court junk, I haven't had contact with Baltor in years…thank god, too."

"I just thought," I said, stepping off the subway at my stop –this wasn't the reaction I'd hoped for. "You guys being best friends."

"Used to be best friends." Daphne cut off, "Before he stabbed us both in the back. If I never see his face again it'll be too soon."

"Strong words."

"I don't like cursing, you know that."

_It wasn't my fault_ Baltor's words from earlier today floated back into my memory, and I could feel the breeze from the park again…the shade of the tree…the scent of the grass…Baltor's arms around me…"It wasn't his fault…"

"What?" Oh my god, I did not just say that out loud. "Bloom how can you say that?" Daphne sounded shocked. "He saw Mom and Dad's car. He gunned the intersection. _He_ knew he'd hit them hard and did it anyway. _He killed them_. And he knew it was them."

"Well maybe there's an explanation." The words were out of my mouth before I could debate them.

"Yeah, he's a demon from hell who befriended us just to see us in pain in the long run."

"A _logical_ explanation, Daphne."

"Ok, how do we get one?" She sounded smug, as though she'd caught me. But I wasn't losing this argument.

"Well how about I give you his phone number, you call him, and you rant to him about getting answers and what a demon he is!" I reached the top of the stairs and started walking toward my apartment.

I heard a gasp at the other end of the line. "What did you just say?"

"Rant to him…"

"You have his _phone number_!"

"Yeah…" I started in then, telling her the whole story. Well, not the 'whole' story…more like an abridged version (abridged enough so Daphne would know the basics but wouldn't kill me). However, even the abridged version took me three blocks to fully explain. And when I was done, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect.

"Oh geez Bloom…"

"Don't be mad!"

"I'm not mad," Daphne shot back, "I'm just…concerned. But hey, it's your life. If you want to talk to him, go ahead. Just promise me you'll be careful."

"Cross my heart."

"I want his phone number."

"Daphne!" I groaned, entering my building. She had to pick now to go all overprotective on me.

"Just for safe keeping," Daphne protested, "I won't call it unless it's a huge emergency."

Sighing, I repeated the number

**Baltor**

"Hello?" I answered the phone as I dug in my pocket for my apartment key.

"You have _got_ to see this," the voice at the other end of the line said, sounding shocked.

"See what?" I asked, finally grasping the key and taking it out of my pocket. The normally coy and stony quality of the person's voice was gone.

"Where are you?"

"Just walking into my apartment," I said, opening the door and flipping on the lights. The modern Manhattan apartment seemed out of my style completely, but of course it's what I'm stuck with. Not like I got a choice of where to live. "What's with you?"

"Turn on channel nine. You won't believe it!"

"You're finally in a mental hospital and you got on T.V.?" I asked, walking over to my glass coffee table and picking up the remote.

"You are _so_ hilarious."

"Thank you. I'll be here all month." I pressed the red button on the T.V. remote. "What channel again?"

"Nine."

"Isn't that just news?"

"Just do it, Baltor!"

"Fine…" I scrolled trough the channels, watching images of football reruns, weather forecasters, and some Spanish soap opera flash on the screen. When I finally got to the right channel, I saw one of those newscaster girls with tons of makeup on the screen in midsentence.

"- And we continue with the breaking news we brought you earlier. Police are still in pursuit of the vehicle that robbed a Wells Fargo in New Jersey minutes ago. Reports say they stole around one hundred thousand dollars in cash. We now go live to the chase." The image changed to a red escalade driving down a highway. I gasped. "That's not…"

"That _is_," the voice said, sounding as shocked as I felt. "One of us."

"Dang. A good cop chase and I don't have any popcorn." I watched the car swerve trough highway traffic, three police cars in pursuit. I recognized the particular part of the coast; the car was near the New York-Jersey boarder. "They gonna make it?"

"Oh yeah, but we've never had news crews on us."

"You know who it is?"

"Someone in my family, with my luck." The voice said sarcastically, "Person has a blonde wig with hideous pink highlights. Car doesn't have a license plate. It is so one of ours."

I muttered in agreement, watching as the car approached a cliff turn. "I really don't know how this one is going to end," the news guy in the helicopter was commenting to the lady in the station. "Wait hold it, he's not turning…what the…!" The driver floored it and drove straight off the cliff. The helicopter panned just in time to see a huge splash in the water. To any ordinary eye (or any cop who investigated later on), it looked like the car plummeted into the water from the fifty foot drop. But any profession eye, you could clearly see a decent ledge the car should have hit, so it should have been flipping when it hit the water, changing the pattern of the splash. Any professional eyes could make out that the car in the water had it's back window busted open, when the windows should have been intact. And the slight tire treads on the ledge; indicating the _real_ car had perfectly hit the ledge and driven off, while knocking a similar but older car into the water in it's place.

The whole procedure had been done in three seconds flat. Executed perfectly; just like it was planned (which of course it was). "Oh my gosh," the voice of the news guy said as the older car dropped further into the Atlantic. "It's over, it's over…" That of course was also not true. I could see a perfect little indent in the rock; five hundred bucks says the real car was there getting a license plate put on it so it could slip into New York unnoticed.

I flipped off the T.V. "Idiots."

"Yep," the voice agreed, "At least we know where were getting our money."

"That's for sure."

**Ha! All those weekends of watching 'World's Wildest Police Videos' finally came in handy. Well folks, that's all for now. And yes, the person talking to Baltor is the same person from chapter 4, in case you were wondering. Feedback always welcome (I didn't feel like saying review)!**

Sneak Peak at Chapter 8:

Things with Bloom and Baltor seem to finally be going well. But you know what they say; all good things must come to an end.


	8. New Discoveries

**Happy almost October! Why is it so happy? I don't know! Ok, so I'm currently sitting in my room right now with sushi and caffeine; two of the greatest things ever invented, by the way, and I promised myself I would get started on this. So this chapter is kind of a setup for the main climax (which I can't wait to get started on!), and the explanation for how everyone met. So keep on reading!**

* * *

Over the next week and a half, it seemed like I was living in two separate worlds. One world was with all my friends, hanging out at the Fruity Music Bar with them and the guys (and complaining about Diaspro in the process; she hung out with us on Thursday). The other half was usually somewhere in the city, catching up with Baltor. We basically spent every other day together, hanging out in the city, at his apartment (which _blew me away_, the place looked like a multi-million dollar home), or there was the day we drove down to Long Island and hung out there for a day.

In other words, I was in heaven. My friends suspected absolutely nothing (that I knew of), Daphne was apparently very shocked or very pissed at me; for whatever reason, I didn't hear from her for the rest of the week –even though I was woken up at two am by Diana, asking if I was really talking to Baltor again. As for Baltor, he seemed completely fine with not telling my friends. Of course I hadn't really thought about why he'd be ok with keeping everything a secret. If I had…geez who knows what would have happened. So, through that whole time, I was asking myself, how could it get better?

Now looking back, it should have been more like; when did it all come crashing down?

* * *

Chapter 8: New Discoveries

* * *

**Bloom**

"So are we hanging out at my place today?" Baltor asked me over the phone as I walked down Music Avenue. Technically, the name of the street isn't Music Avenue, but it's what my friends and I call it. Our favorite music store is here (the one Jared works at), along with a Ben & Jerry's. Our usual day around here is buying some new music, and then getting ice cream, listening to our new playlists (usually on Tecna's laptop; she takes that thing everywhere).

"Yeah, I thought we were. If you're busy though, it's fine."

"No," Baltor waved off the idea, "I've got some work to do, but it can wait until this afternoon. Your friends busy?"

"They think I'm job hunting."

"Job at that bar fell though?"

"Yeah…but are you sure you can put your work off?" I stepped to the curb and held up my hand. "Taxi!" The driver motioned to the back, showing he already had someone, and sped on. I heard Baltor chuckle.

"You're in the suburbs, Princess. You're not getting a taxi."

"Nobody asked you," I shot back, continuing down the street.

"You shouldn't need permission to point out the obvious."

"In that case; the only way you're ever getting a girlfriend is if you pay one."

"Interested in the position?"

I nearly tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. Baltor heard my struggle and laughed. I regained my balance. "As if!"

"Come on, one hundred bucks a day."

"We'll talk when I get there. You sure you can put off work?"

"What are you, my mother? I'll be fine."

"How are your folks, anyway?"

"Dad still drunk, Mom still won't talk to me after I was arrested…same old same old." That was one thing I remembered. Baltor's dad had a horrible drinking problem, and his mom for some reason won't leave him, yet when Baltor first got into it with the law, she threw him out. He never complained about it, and actually seemed happier when they weren't around. His mom had been nice though before all of it; young looking, with his hair color and dark eyes. "Forgot I basically have none, didn't you?" Baltor continued, sounding amused.

"Sorry…" I said, immediately feeling guilty.

He chuckled. "Don't be. I'll see you when you get here. You know, if you can catch a taxi."

I rolled my eyes. "I can so get one."

"Sure you can. This coming from a girl who-"

"Not interested in one of my life's many screw-ups. See you later." I said with a small laugh and hung up. I walked past the CD store and caught sight of Jared in the window, stocking _So Wrong, It's Right_ from All Time Low on the shelves. He caught sight of me and waved. I smiled and lifted a hand back. Jared then motioned to the door, where a person was walking out. Assuming he wanted me to come in and talk I mouthed 'busy' to him, turning and walking backwards so he could see me. He rolled his eyes and nodded; giving that look of someone who's annoyed at a person for not getting an entire conversation. I raised an eyebrow as he turned back to work, trying to decipher what he meant. Because I was preoccupied, I didn't realize how close I was to the opening door until I hit it, knocking the girl coming out to the ground.

"Oh!" I spun around, catching sight of her black hair. "I'm so sorry!"

The girl grabbed her bag and laughed. "No problem. Happens to everyone, right?"

I froze. I knew that voice, I knew that hair, and I knew that red plaid mini-skirt was from Stella's closet. I was frozen as the girl picked herself up and turned to face me. Musa retracted slightly at the sight of me. "Bloom?"

I snapped out of my trance and smiled. "Hey! What are you doing around here?"

"Stella's shopping," she said, as though that was the simplest explanation in the book, "And Jared wanted me to listen to a new playlist. What are you doing here?"

"Oh nothing…" I felt like cursing. That had to be the worst thing I could say.

Sure enough it was. Musa raised an eyebrow at me. "Layla told us you went job hunting."

"Yeah…on my way, actually…"

"This is a separate subway stop. Why'd you come here?"

"Oh um…I could have sworn they were hiring here…a couple day ago when I was passing by, my vision must be going out on me…"

Musa was again suspicious. "Jared called me yesterday afternoon and told me to come over here to grab the playlist and a CD for Tecna…he didn't say anything about a job opening."

"Well, I must have read the want-ad wrong." I insisted.

She crossed her arms. "You said you saw it passing by the store, not in a want-ad."

Oh god, I'm in trouble. However, all I could get out was; "I did?"

"Uh-huh. Do people ever tell you you're really bad at lying?"

"You and Baltor both…" I muttered under my breath.

"Me and who?"

"Nobody. Look Musa," I said, waving her off. I felt horrible, "I've really got to go. Can we talk about this later?"

Musa looked shocked before her face was set in stone again. "Yeah, you, me and the rest of the girls can talk about what's been up with you lately at home."

My eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

"Ever since that incident with getting robbed, you've been acting weird. We didn't say anything out loud, but Layla and I talked last night. We're worried about you, Bloom." Musa's expression softened a little. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," I insisted, my panic almost overtaking my body, "Look, I've got to get going, I'll talk to you at home." Without waiting for a reply, I turned and walked off, trying to gain control of the range of emotions I was feeling. I was panicking because this meant I was officially in trouble, I was mad because Musa hadn't dropped the subject, and I felt horrible about lying to my friends. I grabbed my phone and tried calling Baltor back, but it was busy. I knew I had to go over there to tell him I couldn't stay. Trying not to panic, I saw another cab heading my way. I stepped to the curb, and gave a little whistle (oddly enough, something I'd learned from Musa). The driver saw me, and pulled over. Without looking back, I got in.

**Musa**

"Musa? Musa? Hey, Earth to Musa!"

"Huh, what?" I snapped into reality to find a hand waving in front of my face. Jared looked at me oddly.

"I was just going to ask you to give this to Riven for me. I told him I'd hand it over weeks ago," I looked down at the copy of _Shh. Just Go With It_. I remembered Riven had let Jared borrow it back in early August. I took the CD from his outstretched hand. "Are you feeling ok?" he continued. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Oh, I'm ok. Hey Jared, have there been any job openings here lately?"

Jared laughed. "Yeah right! With the economy these days, you'd have to be an idiot to quit any kind of job…were more worried about getting fired!"

"So no openings?"

"Not since June." He replied. "And speaking of jobs, I'd like to keep mine. I've gotta get back to work. Later Musa."

"Bye," I waved, walking down the street.

No job openings. So that's another lie. I found out Sky sold the old concert tickets to a couple at the restaurant for three hundred bucks because Bloom didn't want to go. Of course, that's not what Bloom said. I had only told the findings last night to Layla; she seemed as surprised as I was. So that left one question; what was up? I hadn't really heard the other name Bloom said when I asked about lying, but it sounded like it started with a B. But it couldn't have been Brandon…

I sighed. This was hopeless to figure out by myself. I needed some time to sit down and think. Luckily, I knew just the place.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The Fruity Music Bar was practically empty when I got there; figured though. The place never seemed busy around this time. Besides two other people watching football on the plasma, I was the only one there. I hoped up onto one of the barstools, and grabbed my iPod out of my pocket, scrolling through my playlists. A shadow passed over me. "Nice iPod. Is it the new Nano?"

I smiled. "Hey Riven. Yeah, I saved up for it."

"Nice," Riven complimented, grabbing a glass and cleaning it off. "How it working?"

"Pretty good…oh, before I forget," I grabbed my messenger bag and pulled out the CD. I put it on the counter, and Riven grinned. "About time I got that back."

"Hmm…" I hummed in agreement. "Yeah, that's what I heard…"

"Musa?" Riven raised an eyebrow at me, "Are you ok?"

"I've just a lot on my mind…"

"I can see that. I've never seen anyone look that shocked since Stella's dad saw her credit card bill after that huge Nordstrom's sale." I giggled as Riven continued, "You want something to drink? I'll buy."

"Yeah, that sounds great. Pick whatever you want, I don't care," I said as Riven turned his back to me so he could grab a glass. "So are you the only one here now?"

"Nah, Brandon's clearing a table outside, but Helia left about five minutes ago."

"Date with Flora?"

"What else?" Riven smirked, turning to face me and putting a glass in front of me. I hesitantly took a sip before realizing it was only diet soda. "So what's up?"

"Ugh, how many tables can Roxy's dad afford?" a voice cut in before I could speak. I grinned at the voice as the owner walked in from the patio, a rag slung across his shoulder. Brandon smiled at me. "Oh, hey Musa."

I gave a peace sign back as Brandon grabbed a chair next to me. I still remember when I first met Brandon, Riven, Sky, Timmy, and…well, everybody. Bloom, Tecna, Flora and I had all been friends with Stella at some point (her parents moved constantly on business), and Stella called us all up when we turned eighteen, giving us this crazy idea to come live in a penthouse with her in the Big Apple. At first we all turned her down, but Stell was persistent. Finally, Tecna broke down, and Flora not long after. Then Bloom agreed, and that left me. Not wanting to be out of the loop, I agreed, too.

At first, I didn't know how it was going to work out. None of us had seen Stella in three years because she was living in Malibu, California, or met each other. Bloom was from Colorado, but she lived with her foster parents in Gardenia when Stella got the idea, Flora was a quiet girl from Nashville, and Tecna dropped her college courses she was taking in Seattle and came here (I had been the only one truly from NYC).

After we all had moved here, and Stella had found it 'essential' to introduce us to 'the boys'; four guys who she had convinced to come, too. Timmy was a genius from Albuquerque who had graduated college at age 20, Riven from a single parent family in New Orleans, and Sky and Brandon are two best friends she dragged into the mess from Malibu. It seemed like the only thing we had in common was agreeing Stella was crazy. But oddly enough, when we all met, we clicked. It was like one of those cheesy movies, but much cooler. The nine of us were inseparable. Not long after that, we met Layla and Helia; two kids from Miami who were in a college exchange course at the New York Exceptional Arts Academy (Helia for drawing, and Layla for dancing). They quickly graduated their classes, and never left the city.

"Not much," Brandon's bored voice brought me back from my monologue, "Cleaning tables. What a way to make a living."

"Sounds like it." I smirked.

"So what are you doing here? CD delivery for Jared?"

"A little…I needed to clear my head."

"Yeah, what's up?" Riven asked again.

I sighed. "It's just Bloom. She's been acting really weird lately…ever since she got robbed."

Brandon cringed. "I hear about that. Is she feeling better?"

"Fine as far I know, but since then she's been going out during the day and lying about it. She said she was going job hunting, but I found her on Music Avenue. She said she saw a job opening poster in the CD store, but then she said it was a want-add." Riven raised an eyebrow. I nodded. "I know, right? It's like she's majorly out of it."

Brandon shook his head. "That doesn't sound like her. When did this start?"

"Well after she got robbed…but she started going out after that date she had with Sky."

Silence followed. Riven finally spoke up. "What date?"

"You know…about a week ago, like the nineteenth or something, when she went to the Italian place on Fifth Avenue with Sky."

Brandon gave me a look as he reached out grabbed my drink. He took a sip of it and gagged (Brandon hates diet). "Ugh…Sky and Roxy _worked _over there around that time, but Sky hasn't been on a date with Bloom for…well, never, not that I think about it." He slid the drink down the bar to me. It stopped and it spilled over the rip of the glass and almost got my sleeve wet. I hardly cared at this point.

Riven was nodding in agreement. "Sky told me Roxy was acting a little off…she said she saw Diaspro, but I wonder…"

"Wait wait!" I cut in, "Your saying all the times this week Bloom's told us, 'I'm with Sky,' or 'Me and Sky are doing this,' she was lying?"

Brandon and Riven exchanged a glance before Brandon nodded. "Sky's been with us the whole week."

**Baltor**

"So since when are you interested in paying people to date you?" I rolled my eyes at the voice (though it was only a cell phone call, so it was pointless) and didn't respond. After a few seconds I heard a chuckle. "Aww come on, I'm just curious."

"Of course _you _would be."

"Ha ha. Calling me gay?"

"You've only insulted yourself." I snickered, "Way to say something at the wrong time."

"Aww bull, I've had a long day." The voice shot back. "But come on, if any of the hooker girls in New York hear that, you're going to one popular person."

"You know, I would greatly appreciate you people not listening in on my phone calls."

"Not my call. You know that."

"Yeah yeah yeah…" I lapsed into silence. After another moment, the voice spoke again. "So what's the plan?"

I was slightly taken aback. "What plan?"

"What plan?! Ok, let's see if this rings a bell, Romeo. Red-head girl, two week deadline, one hundred thousand dollars. Remember?"

"Oh…that…"

"Oh, that," the voice mocked, "Do you realize we've got two days, Baltor? Two days!"

"I'm starting to think _you've_ got two days."

"I'm starting to agree! You've been totally oblivious to the whole thing the last few days. Come on, we're in this together."

"Yeah…well maybe I'm starting to think otherwise."

The line got deathly quiet. I heard a low, cold laugh that could've frozen my feet to the floor. "I can't believe this…you _care_ about her. Were going to miss one hundred thousand dollars, an escape to California, and the ability to be free…because you've got feeling for some kid."

"That's the point! She is a kid! Twenty-one, for god's sake, and we're going to sell her like a trinket! And for what exactly?"

"Don't know, don't really care. And besides, the youngest one here is nineteen. You joined up when you were fifteen. You took out her parents; what does she matter?"

"She's just…different, ok?"

"So you like her? Aww…well, screw that idea. I for one need some freedom, and I know you want it. Now were so close we can almost taste it…and you're giving it up for a pretty face you can never see no matter what you choose."

I felt a slight pain on my hand, and when I looked, I saw I had balled my hand into a fist so tight my palm was cut. "Can we lecture later?"

"No, we can't."

"Then go to hell." The words were out of my mouth in a flash, and I hung up before I could hear a reply. Sighing, I walked over to the sink and turned on the water, running my hand under it to wash out the small wound. The mild stinging was enough to distract me from my problems. Temporarily, anyway.

The other thing that distracted me was the knock at my door. Drying my hand, I opened it to find Bloom, her hands on the knees, breathing deeply. Her bangs were clinging to her forehead as she looked up at me. I leaned against the doorway and raised an eyebrow. "You run a marathon or something?"

She rolled her eyes. "You live on the top floor of a seven story apartment complex and your elevator's busted."

I shrugged. "You know you can walk up the stairs. You don't have to run." I moved aside and walked into my living room, gesturing for her to come in. "You want a water or something?"

"Yeah, water sounds good." I was slightly surprised when I didn't hear the door close. I turned to find Bloom had followed me. "I can't stay long, though." I opened the door to the fridge as she continued, "I've got to go talk to my friend Musa…she saw me today and knows I'm lying to her. I really need to apologize to her."

"And you plan to say?" I asked, handing her the bottle. She gratefully took it and gulped half of it down. When she took the bottle away from her lips, she only shrugged in response.

"I'm clueless," she looked sheepish.

I smirked. "In that case, I wish you the best of luck."

Bloom rolled her eyes at me. "Thanks. That means a lot."

My smirk widened. "No need to be ungrateful."

"My deepest apologies."

It was my turn to roll my eyes as I absently adjusted her bangs. "Relax. I'm sure you'll be fine."

Bloom gave a small smile, and I walked her out. Once the door was closed, I let out a breath. Not wasting time, I grabbed my coat and my phone, which was currently ringing. I took one look at the name on the screen, and hit ignore.

**Ok, I realize some people may be starting to wonder who this mystery person is, but don't worry, you'll find out in a chapter or two. Of course, if anyone has a guess, I'd be happy to hear it when you review. Just saying!**


	9. Reality Check

**Peace! My school has an in service day, so I'm on a three day weekend, hallelujah! Now, some of the reviews I've gotten have said; "Ok, because of the gay comment, it can be a girl…". **_**However**_**, the line after that, Baltor said, "You've only insulted yourself." So yes, it can still be a girl. Also, stick around for important messages at the end of the chapter. And…what am I forgetting? Oh yeah!**

**Disclaimer: Bloom and Sky engaged? Ha, not if I owned it! **

* * *

There are a few basic signs that your life as you know it is slowly starting to unravel. One is obviously that your best friend found out you weren't doing what you said you were for the last two weeks or so. Another is in order to get said person to forgive you, you either have to;

a. tell them the entire truth, which may result in all of your friends hating you (particularly a certain blonde haired boy from Malibu), or

b. tell them what you've been doing is not under any circumstances important, the person you've been with is not worth your time, and swear to never speak to them again. However, options a and b are useless if your other friends have already found out about the whole deal, and one of your friends is scheduled to be in the Genius Book of World Records for fastest text message ever sent (so that's not true, but Tecna's been thinking of qualifying Stella for it).

In other words, I was screwed. Really screwed. I either had to tell the truth about Baltor, or pretend he didn't exist (which, up until a month ago, I had been fantastic at). So you can already guess that tings didn't go well.

Talk about getting a reality check.

* * *

Chapter 9: Reality Check

* * *

**Bloom**

I walked into the Fruity Music Bar at a fast pace. I saw a boy cleaning off the counter. "Hey, is Musa here?" He glanced up at me, smirked, and laughed. "Honey, you're _so_ going to get it."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't you have to be sarcastic somewhere else, Riven?"

"Nah, I'm not off for another half hour," he smirked. "It'll give me some extra sleep; I'm working at the bar from midnight to three." Riven also worked in a downtown bar at night; he says the pay is a nice bonus.

I rolled my eyes. "Is Musa here or not?"

"Just missed her actually. But…we were informed of your amazing disappearing act. Hate Sky that much, huh?"

"Riven, you have no idea what you're talking about, ok. So kindly shut up and-" I stopped, processing what he had said, "Who's 'we'?"

"Oh me and Brandon," he waved off, but I knew Riven better than that. I raised an eyebrow at him. He matched my look for a good five seconds before speaking again. "Fine. Musa did tell someone else about what you've been up to lately before she left. Relax though; she said she's not telling the girls yet."

"Then who was she talking to?"

Riven grinned and jerked his head to the patio. "Go find out."

I gave him a suspicious look, and turned and walked outside. At first, it looked the same as always; the stage for performing, tables, the outside bar, and the lights strung up. Then, giving a second onceover, I barley caught sight of a black jean leg and a sneaker under the stage, hooking up wires I guessed. "Um…hello?"

There was a bang, and the leg jolted out a little; I obviously scared whoever it was. "Dang! That'll leave a mark…" the voice laughed as the person got out from under the stage. My blood ran cold and my heart practically stopped at the voice I knew so well. I saw one black jean leg attached to a sneaker, then another, followed by a torso with an old dark blue long sleeved tee. The hands reached out and gripped the stage, pushing the boy (it was obviously a boy) out from under the stage. He effortlessly rolled away before standing up to face me, his blonde hair coated with dust on one side, and his blue eyes with a hint of amusement.

Sky.

His smile faded a little from his face when he saw me. "Oh. Hey Bloom."

I managed a smile and lifted a hand. "Hey. What were you doing down there?"

"Fixing wires." Sky ran a hand through his hair, flinging the dust everywhere. "Roxy's dad has me working around the clock ever since this whole incident when we…"

"Yeah, you told me." I picked up where he trailed off.

"Right. Of course I did." I cringed slightly as he turned and walked to the outside bar. He effortlessly hopped the counter. "You want a drink or something? Strawberry smoothie?"

"Sure, sounds good." I said, walking over there. "I'll pay for it."

Sky was already waving his hand, calling off the idea as his other one poured the strawberries and ice into the blender. "Relax. I'm on tight pay enough. A few more dollars won't hurt."

"You sure?"

"Positive." He said, turning the blender on. The sound of it was the only break in the silence. I reached down and played with the silver bracelet Diana got me for my twentieth birthday, I always did that when I was nervous. Sky knew that, too, but he hardly looked surprised to find me twisting the silver chain. After a few seconds (seconds…hours, I really wasn't sure), he switched it off and grabbed a glass.

"So," I said, desperate to break the silence, "What have you been doing lately?"

He seemed to be absently thinking as he poured the drink. "Well – funny story – according to Musa, these last few weeks I've been to Long Island, Eastern Manhattan, the Italian place on Fifth Avenue, an All American Rejects concert….all with you." I cringed again as Sky set the drink in front of me. "So either I hit my head really hard last night and have a horrible case of amnesia…or you've been lying."

I gave a small grin. "Would you believe amnesia?"

Sky didn't smile back, something that kept my blood cold; grim did not suit him. "Not at this particular moment." I sighed, and Sky shook his head. "I didn't realize what a good alibi I was."

"You weren't an alibi!"

"Really, because it sure sounds like it."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Sky, I…I don't know what to say to you. I really don't."

"Then explain where you've really been. Then I can call Musa and tell her this whole thing was a misunderstanding."

My eyes snapped open. "Is that a threat?"

Sky didn't answer. "Where've you been, Bloom?"

I narrowed my eyes and shoved the drink across the counter at him; I didn't want it anymore. "Not that it's your business, but I've been with a friend."

"What kind of friend?"

"A _friend _friend. And what do you care: you've spent the last few weeks with Diaspro I'm sure."

"That's not the same…"

"How?"

Sky looked exasperated. He grabbed my drink and took a gulp, obviously realizing I didn't want it. "I'm just worried about you, Bloom." He walked around the bar and jumped up onto it. He was only a few feet from me. "What if this isn't a good person? I don't want to see you get hurt." Sky's voice was softer, and almost caring.

"I can trust him!"

Sky shook his head. "You can never truly trust anyone, Bloom."

"So why should I trust you?"

"Why should _I_ trust_ you_?" Sky shot back.

It was my turn to be exasperated. "What do you want me to do? Say that what I've been doing isn't important at all because it just isn't? I'm supposed to say that what I'm doing isn't important, it's just a worthless waste of my time, and I won't ever do it again because you say so? I'm supposed to just drop it, because you know what's best for me? It's not hard to say." My voice was coated with sarcasm.

He ignored it and shrugged. "Then say it."

I really wanted to slap him. I really, _really _wanted to slap him. However, I refused to be the weaker person here. "Make me."

Now Sky looked mad at me. I was starting to wonder if the only thing Sky wanted was to control me, or if I had just been so focused on Baltor that I hadn't realized how this might affect him. I was convinced that it was the first one, but before I could speak, something crazy happened.

Namely, Sky jumped down from the counter and in a single smooth motion, yanked me into his arms and crashed his lips onto mine.

I was surprised that I was able to think straight, and my first intention was to push him away. But I could feel it; the desperation, and the pleading, and the…well, everything, in the kiss. I got it then; Sky really liked me. So besides realizing Stella wasn't crazy after all, I saw what he had wanted to say to me all along: Diaspro wasn't important, I care about you.

And that sucked.

Because I realized then I liked Sky. As a friend. And the debating in my head if I had feelings or not for Baltor; I realized I did. I liked Baltor. Heck, maybe I loved Baltor. But after this, there was no way I could say that to Sky. So when he finally took his lips away from mine, and looked straight into my eyes, I closed mine just to avoid his gaze. "Bloom?"

I forced myself to smile, my eyes still closed. "What I'm doing isn't important, it's just a worthless waste of my time, and I won't ever do it again. You know what's best for me."

I heard Sky laugh, and felt him wrap his arms around me. I rested my chin on his shoulder, and gave a silent sigh. When my eyes opened, I saw Riven's reflection in the bar mirror, his arms crossed, staring at me in shock. 'Do you mean that?' he mouthed to me.

"Go eavesdrop somewhere else!" I said to him out loud.

"Dude, come on!" Sky added, sounding annoyed.

"Fine fine…at least Stella will be in a good mood tonight…" he muttered, turning and walking off.

I took a breath. "Riven." He stopped and turning to meet my gaze. "I mean it."

Trying not to think about how stupid this was, how much I wanted another person's arms around me…I tried not to cry at what a mistake I'd just made.

(A/N: Don't kill me. It's not the end of the chapter, but I needed to say that.)

**Baltor**

I drove in my car for about six hours after I left the apartment, even though it felt more like an eternity. The songs on the radio blended into each other, along with whatever DJ was talking. Barley paying attention, I floored the gas petal, the chilled wind on my face keeping me awake. Of course, the speeding got me pulled over - twice actually, but both cops 'let me off with a warning' because of my 'clean record' (I won't mention I used fake licenses and registrations; heaven knew my personal record wasn't clean). So finally I gave up at two am and stopped at a bar I discovered when I was twenty-three. It felt like the most familiar thing around right now.

"You're out of it tonight, huh man?"

Unfortunately, familiar also meant annoying. I glanced up to find a red haired, magenta eyed boy looking at me. I gave him a slightly evil smile in response. "I have no idea how you manage to stay awake at two am, Riven."

"What can I say?" he smirked. "I'm a night person. You on the other hand, look tired."

"Tired? I'd go with stressed."

"You want a beer?" I had only known Riven for a few months (I met him when he started working here, and the two of us are pretty good friends), and if you were over 21, a beer was Riven's answer to everything.

"If it'll make you happy," my voice was dripping with sarcasm, "MGD 64." I named Riven's favorite.

"Ah, Genuine Draft, good man," he said, turning to get one, "So where have you been lately? Haven't seen you around."

"It's been a week."

"Exactly," I heard a small crack and the familiar pop of the bottle cap, "Compared to my friends lately, you're the best dose of sanity around."

"I'm not sure if I'm flattered or you're just gay."

"Serving smoothies and shakes by day and a bartender for three hours at night," he placed the bottle on front of me, "One can only stay straight for so long."

"Should I even ask?" I took a long drink, the familiar-ish burn of the alcohol running down my throat. It was exactly what I needed.

"Probably not…"

"But you're going to tell me anyway?"

"You know me so well," Riven smirked, "Friend drama. Stella may live on the stuff, but I'm considering selling our story to MTV. One of my friends has been acting really off lately, is all."

"Sounds fun."

"Hell yeah. And of course Musa had to go off and tell Sky everything. The look on his face was priceless," I had heard Riven talk about his other friends, I'd even met Brandon, but Sky…Sky sounded like a blonde pretty boy anyone in my 'circle of friends' could have thrown off a cliff in fifteen minutes flat. "But his girlfriend obviously set him straight."

I raised an eyebrow. "Isn't he single?"

"That's what I thought. But I snuck a glance outside and found him trying to suck her lips off. And of course, she didn't look like she wasn't enjoying it." Riven shook his head as I lifted the bottle back to my lips. "It's all I'm going to hear about all weekend. Gotta admit, I was kind of surprised. Bloom never seemed like his type."

I chocked on the drink, managing to gulp it down, then coughed and sputtered trying to get it down the right way. Finally I was able to breath. Riven watched me with a raised eyebrow. "Are you ok?"

"Oh great, I try to find ways to kill myself almost every other day. Keeps life interesting." Riven rolled his eyes as I continued, "What did you say about that girl?"

"Not his type, and with his ex and all –"

"Her name Riven, her name."

"Bloom? She's a friend of mine from that suburb Gardenia – well, she grew up in Utah or Colorado, somewhere like that. You know her?"

"Depends. What does she look like?"

"I'd say a few inches shorter that you, red hair, blue eyes…"

"Sarcasm can annoy the hell out of you?" I couldn't help letting the sarcastic comment slip out.

"So you know her!" he grinned, "You wouldn't happen to know what's been up with her lately, have you?"

"Can't say so," I decided it was best to keep what I'd been doing a secret, "I haven't talked to her in a while. But last I knew she wasn't with Sky."

"Ha, well then you haven't talked to her my friend. And after the kiss she said something like, 'What I'm doing isn't a big deal, you know what's best for me,' or something like that." He shrugged, "I don't know."

I put a hand to my head. "She said that? With a straight face?"

"Yep. But hey, I'm putting work before this whole load, but the whole thing was just so –" he stopped abruptly. "I'm gossiping, aren't I? God, I am turning gay. I'm getting Bloom and Sky for this one."

"If you don't mind, I'd like to ask Bloom personally about it," I reached into my pocket for a ten to pay.

Riven gave me a surprised look. "Sure, man. Try to talk some sense into her while your at it."

I handed him the bill. "I'll do that. See you." Stalking outside, I tried to fight the headache I felt coming on. I felt like I was still chocking on the beer, too. How did this even happen? I knew that for the longest time Bloom had had a crush on me (Daphne forced it out of her when she was eleven and then told me), and I had never really thought about it until recently. However, she must have gotten over it the night I ran that red light and crashed into Oritel and Miriam's car. Obviously.

_I'm putting work before this whole load. _Riven was right, that's what I needed to do. I grabbed my phone, pressed six, and green to go. It rang three times before I was met with a sarcastic voice. "I'm not in hell yet, sorry to disappoint you."

"I'm not disappointed, I've been a flipping moron. Tell them we'll have her tomorrow night."

"You serious?"

"Deadly. I've got a plan to get us to California. And this time, no sidetracks."

**Ha ha ha! So getting out of my evil author stage, I would like to (again) say that I am so so so sorry! I know half of you want to kill me, and I don't blame you. But (yes, there is a but), this is all going to work out in the long run, trust me. So here's how I'm making it up to you in the mean time; **

**I'm announcing the mystery person in the next chapter, but, if anyone who reviews (hint, hint) can correctly guess who the person is, I'll send you chapter 10 a day in advance! It's only for the **_**first **_**person who correctly guesses, because I'm not sending advanced chapters to five or six people (Remember, it can still be a boy or girl). Good luck (and don't kill me!)**


	10. Yellow Roses

**Ok, I'm currently getting ready for my school's annual field trip to Disneyland (at 4am...it's a long story) and after said trip I'm going down to my beach house, which unfortunately has the worst internet connection known to mankind, so this obviously had to go up before I left. Some people were so close to the mystery person (one even said the correct name, but then said another person!), so I'm going to stop being an evil author (well…at least a little) because you find out the identity of the person this chapter! So read on! **

All in all, I think I got about three hours of sleep that night.

Seriously, that's how guilty I felt. It was already late by the time I'd left the Fruity Music Bar, and when I got back to the apartment, only Layla and Musa were there, in the middle of watching The Uninvited (a DVD we had gotten a la Stella). Layla invited me to join, but I turned her down, saying that I was beat (technically not a lie). Musa didn't even speak. So I gave up and went to bed…well, technically I didn't. I just tossed and turned most of the night. I finally got to sleep around two and gave up at five am. So yeah, about three hours. Thank god for coffee, right? But if I had known what would happen that day……I would have never gotten out of bed.

* * *

Chapter 10: Yellow Roses

* * *

"Ok," Stella said in her usual cheerful voice at breakfast, absently tossing an orange into the air and catching it, "What's on the agenda today?"

"Well," Flora stirred some creamer into her coffee, "I've got my gardening class today…"

"Great day for it," Musa smirked. The sky did have a thin layer of clouds on it, in fact, it was supposed to rain later today.

"And I'm working on the sound system at the Fruity Music Bar," Tecna added, "Roxy told me it's malfunctioning. Sky tried fixing it yesterday, but it didn't work."

I tried not to cringe at Sky's name. "I'm helping Vanessa in her flower shop in Gardenia today for some extra cash, but I'll be back in the city by five."

"Perfect," Stella grinned. It was a true mystery how she could be so preppy on half a cup of decaf, "Then tonight, it's us and the new disco downtown. Plus the boys. And Ophir," she wiggled her eyebrows, causing us to all burst out laughing and Layla to blush. "Very funny Stella. Just drop it."

"Yeah, Ophir's a good guy," Musa added, "He showed me and Layla this awesome tecno remix I'm thinking of using on my demo CD."

"I didn't know Ophir was into music remixing," I said, "What else does he do?"

Musa gave me a pointed look, "He works at that Italian restaurant on the avenue next to Central Park. Remember, Roxy and Sky – excuse me, _Roxy_ covered there when you and Sky were on your date." Musa look changed into a cool smile; she was loving this, "How did that ever go, anyway? You guys see Roxy?"

I matched her look. "We ran into each other – literally, she knocked my chair over. And the date was fine."

"And the others? Long beach, the other lunch dates, the ice skating?"

"It wasn't ice skating, it was just walking. And it was fine, thanks."

The rest of the girls watched us a bit nervously. "Um…are you guys ok?" Flora finally asked.

"Great," I said before standing, "Hey I've got to get going, Vanessa's waiting for me. I'll see you guys tonight."

"So you can be in Rockefeller Center doing something you said you weren't," Musa muttered.

"Musa are you ok?" Tecna gave her a look, then gave me one, then turned back to Musa, "What's going on with you two?"

Musa gave me silent '_Should I tell them'_ look. I merely shrugged as I pulled my tan trench coat. "I don't really see the big deal of it," I said to her out loud. "I don't have anything to hide. See you guys later."

As I walked out of the kitchen, I made out Stella asking, "Ok, what's the deal?"

Musa sighed. "Well…yesterday…"

I picked up my pace and basically tried not to run to the door. Here we go again.

**Diana**

"Why me?"

"Chica, please," Daphne said as she grabbed her bag, "it's not like I'm asking you to swim the Panama Canal; I just want you to call Bloom and tell her to call _me_. Think of it as passing the message on."

"Yeah, but why can't you call her?"

Daphne rolled her eyes and pointed to the blue 'Cali Surf Shop' tee she was wearing. "Kind of got work."

"So call her after."

"Di!" she said in that pleading voice I always hated. She gave me this puppy dog look, and I knew I couldn't say no. "Please please, _please_."

I gave a frustrated sigh. "I hate you, your aware of that, right?"

Daphne grinned. "You rule girl, thank you!"

"Yeah, but just don't-" but Daphne was already out the door. "Why am I such a good person?" I muttered, going to find my phone in my tornado of a room.

**Bloom**

"Ok, that's half a dozen yellow roses…$5.99," I said to the women, handing her the flowers. I personally didn't get why the place had had a steady flow of customers today, considering the weather had gone from bad to worse.

"Nice price," she muttered more to herself as she handed me the money. "You may as well keep the change, a penny won't do me any good."

"Hey, I just sell them, I don't make the prices." I smiled.

She smiled back, but there was a certain fake quality to it, "Of course. Thanks again for the roses." With that, she turned around and walked outside, running down the street to avoid the rain. A few seconds later, Vanessa came in from the back room, carrying a long cardboard box. She lifted a long, thing looking silver flower pot out of it that went up to my knee. The thing was obviously heavier than it looked because she set it down on the ground a few seconds later with a grunt before she turned her gaze to me, "Thanks for the help today sweetie. I owe you for this."

"No problem Va – er, Mom. Glad to help."

Vanessa gave me a knowing smile. "You know you don't have to call me that."

"Yeah," I said a little sheepishly, "Force of habit."

She nodded, "I've got to go pick up some invoices from the bank, will you be ok here by yourself?"

"I'm twenty-one –twenty-two in December– I'll be fine."

Vanessa grinned and gave me a hug. "I know. You've gotten so old in such a short time. You and Daphne both…" she pushed my shoulders back and gave me a slightly sad smile. "Miriam would be very proud of you girls."

I felt a familiar pang in my chest as I smiled back. "Thanks Vanessa. You need me to start on anything while you're gone?"

"Actually," she said, turning and grabbing her car keys, "If you could put that silver pot on the tall shelf over there," she pointed to the empty shelf to my right about five feet in the air, "And fill it with a bouquet of whatever flowers you like."

"Alright. Have fun."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll try. Oh, and before you head back, Mike wants you to stop by the house. Some of your credit card re-activations got sent to us by mistake."

"No problem." Getting robbed seemed like a millennium ago, instead of just a few weeks. It was amazing how easily the term 'New York minute' applied to my life lately. Vanessa left the store, and I plugged my iPod into the sound system, replacing the boring radio music with the new All Time Low album. "Maybe it's not my weekend, but it's gonna be my year," I sung softly as I grabbed the pot. Vanessa was right, this thing _was_ heavy. I got it across the shop before setting it down so my arms wouldn't fall off. "What do they make these things out of?" I muttered under my breath.

"It's called clay." I jumped about a mile in the air. I hadn't even heard the door open. The voice chuckled. "Scare you, Princess?"

"Maybe." I said, letting the slight adrenaline die down in my blood. "Why are you always so quiet, Baltor?"

He shrugged. "Why are you always so loud?"

"Touché," I gave him a small grin. "You looked soaked."

"Yeah, and that's called rain. You know, that stuff falling from the sky?" He smirked back at me, taking a fistful of his navy blue jacket and squeezing it between his fingers. A few drops fell to the floor.

"I've heard of it. Didn't think you missed me so much you'd come all the way out here."

"Don't flatter yourself," Baltor insisted sarcastically, "It was either this or contemplate the meaning of life." He ran a hand over the silver pot. "You want a hand lifting this thing?"

"Don't bother it's impossible."

"Nothing's impossible darling," he said in a fake tone. My cheeks reddened a little at 'darling', even though I knew he had meant it half-heartedly. And as if that weren't enough, Baltor easily lifted the thing onto the shelf. "What did I tell you?"

"Yeah yeah," I muttered, going over to the flower display to pick some out.

"You're in a fantastic mood today."

"You would be too if you were in my shoes."

"Friend drama?" Baltor asked.

I turned back to him and raised an eyebrow. "How did you know that?"

He gave me a small smirk. "What else do you complain about besides that and me?"

"Point. Maybe you're the reason I'm having a horrible day."

"Now why do I doubt that?" I kept my eyebrow up as I grabbed a bouquet of some random flower. I gave Baltor a onceover as he stared out the window to the darkened streets. Something about him seemed off…I couldn't tell. It seemed like there was a bit more bitterness in the sarcastic comments instead of humor. He seemed to care less about what he said to me. I went back across the room and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey," I apparently snapped him out of it and he turned to me, "Are you ok?"

"Never better."

"Seriously. What's up? You're never out of it. That's my job, remember?"

"And that's exactly my problem."

"Me?"

"My job," he corrected, leaning back against the wall. "I'm just under more stress lately."

"Sounds like fun. Anything I can do?"

He shook his head, as if there was some joke I wasn't getting. "Let me get back to you on that."

"Um…ok?" I reached up and put the flowers – which I now saw were yellow roses, in the vase. When I looked back, I found Baltor staring at me intensely. But before I could get a word out asking what he had been smoking before he got here, he stepped forward and came so close he was literally a foot and a half in front of me. "You know what," he said, putting one hand out and resting it on the shelf just behind me. He leaned his head forward, and I could feel his breath on my face, "I think you can help me."

"Wh-what?" I managed to say. It was a miracle I was even standing.

Baltor rolled his eyes slightly. "Rewind about fifteen seconds. My job. I think you can help me with the stress."

"Oh?" I recognized that look in his eyes, a look Sky had given me less than twenty hours ago. "And how do I do that?"

He smirked at me and said – barley above a whisper. "Distract me." And then he kissed me.

The best way to describe what happened next was that Baltor sent about ten thousand volts of electricity through me. That's how amazing it felt. Even when Sky had kissed me and tried to make it as great as possible, it still lacked…well, everything. Baltor's kiss however, was slow and passionate: hence the whole ten thousand volts things. I got another thing then: the idea of Sky kissing me had made me nervous. The idea (and now fact) that Baltor was kissing me made my knees weak.

Automatically, I reached out and grabbed two fistfuls of his jacket in a desperate attempt to keep myself standing. Baltor took his arm and wrapped it around my waist, pressing me against him while the other was on the shelf, keeping him from falling on top of me (something that I probably would have been ok with). My shirt rose up a little, and I felt Baltor run his hand down my bare skin. Another shock went through me, causing me to hold on tighter. I felt him carefully nibble on my bottom lip, asking me to deepen the kiss. I let him without a second thought. All I could do was hold on, hoping that my oxygen would last me as long as possible.

Everything happened at once.

I made out the little ding which signaled the door opened, and I heard a voice (actually, the voice of the woman who had been in here only minutes ago), "I was wondering if I could get a few more of these –" she cut of. At the same time, Baltor took his hand off my waist. I thought he was going to stop kissing me, but his lips stayed on mine. The woman snickered lightly. "My my, am I interrupting something?" That's when Baltor took his lips away from mine. "I'm sorry Bloom." He whispered to me.

I was going to speak when I caught what sounded like hard clay scraping across wood. I heard what sounded like a distant crash (even though I knew it was close), and felt a sharp pain on the back of my head.

Everything went black.

**Baltor**

I barley managed to catch Bloom in my arms as she fell to the floor. I turned to the owner of the voice – a person I almost didn't recognize. "What happened to you?" I asked, looking at the lilac suit she was wearing and her hair in a tight bun. "You just get out of traffic court, D?"

Darcy gave me a smirk and with a single movement, reached up and undid her hair. Her brown locks fell to the middle of her back. "None of your business." She said to me.

"So it was traffic court? Another 'attorney replacement' who only takes pay up front then mysteriously disappears, huh?"

"One forgotten detail." She reached into her pocket and took out some folded bills. "Cash only. Eight hundred dollars."

"Nice."

She nodded before shifting her gaze to the unconscious redhead in my arms. "So this is the famous Bloom? She doesn't look like your type."

"Oh and you know me so well. I'm guessing in your mind my type is a girl about your height, same hair, same eye color, always wears purple…what am I leaving out?"

Darcy ignored the comment, reaching down and picking up a piece of silver pottery. She ran her thumb over it as she spoke, "Nice idea, though. I'd never think to distract her with a little lip action and then knock her out with a vase."

I shrugged and stood up to my full height. One of my arms keeping Bloom's upper body pressed against mine, while the other was at her knee holts. "I have my moments. But a better one would be hearing you have a car. I'd say we have about five minutes before Vanessa gets back."

"What about your car?" Darcy asked, taking off her jacket. She glanced over at Bloom's cell phone laying on the countertop, and grabbed it.

"Roofs jammed again. If I took it out in this weather it'd end up as a swimming pool." As if to empathize my point, lightning flashed outside, followed by bang on thunder.

Darcy gave a small nod, turning her jacket inside out and putting it back on. "Mine's out back, come on." The fancy jacket now resembled a grey hoodie. As she walked out to the street, Darcy looked like any other person as she pushed the hood up, covering her face. She was smart, I gave her that. "The street's empty," she called, her hand keeping the door open. "Come on, let's get you girlfriend out of here before Valarie or whoever shows up. I'm going to disconnect her phone."

Not even bothering to waste my breath in correcting her, I followed. Darcy had taken her hand off the door, and I barley managed to slip though – I had to jerk my leg free. Darcy was true to her word, the streets were empty. I turned to my left and headed to the alley. The rain was heavier, and besides me, a few drops fell onto Bloom's face. She stirred a little, and to my surprise, subconsciously put her arms around my neck. A small wave of guilt washed over me as I looked down at her.

No. I needed to focus. Darcy was right, the entire point of this was freedom; Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago wherever we wanted to go. It was at our fingertips if this went off without a hitch.

_I found him trying to suck her lips off…She didn't look like she wasn't enjoying it…_ _Said something like, 'What I'm doing isn't a big deal, you know what's best for me.' Go figure… _

I kept repeating Riven's words over and over in my head until I caught a taste of salty blood from biting my tongue so hard. Those words were my drive to keep walking in the rain down the alley, to keep me from doing something to Darcy and letting Bloom go, and making up some excuse about how I accidently knocked the pot off the shelf. And at the thought of the magnificent Sky's reaction to all of this, I felt a smirk cross my face. This is what was supposed to happen.

But yet, through the anger fueling me, I still shifted my arm slightly and pushed Bloom's head into the crook of my neck, protecting her from the rain.

**Diana**

"I'm getting to old for this…" I muttered, pushing myself out from under my bed, cell phone in hand. It had taken me fifteen minutes to find the thing. I scrolled through the contacts, found Bloom number, and dialed. It rang three times before cutting off in the middle of the fourth ring, sending me to voicemail. Being the highly trained cell phone addict I am, I knew she had ignored my call. I was not giving up that easily, especially after looking under my bed (on the bright side though, I found that purse I lost in July). I hung up and redialed. It rang once, twice, three times…. "Hey it's Bloom, I-"

Slightly frustrated now, I hung up again and redialed. This time it was just one ring then voicemail. I sighed as I heard the beep. "Bloom girl, I just want to pass on a message from your sister. I'm really sorry for waking you up at three am, ok? I'm trying one more time, and if you don't pick up, I'm going to be kind of mad. Fair warning."

I dialed, but I heard an automated voice, "The phone you are dialing is currently off. Please try again later." What? It was on a second ago. I again dialed, and then got a weirder message. "The number you are trying to call is out of service. Please contact the AT&T hotline for more information. If you would like to connect, press 1..."

This didn't make sense. I pressed 1, and it started ringing. When I got through, I explained my problem to the woman. "Hmm…well, if a number is out of service, the phone's been shut off."

"Define shut off."

"The phone's account has been deleted. It like your dialing a number of a phone that hasn't been purchased yet. Your friend must have gotten a new number."

"Can you look it up from there so I can get it?"

"I think I can help you out." I immediately liked this woman. "What's your friend's name?"

"Bloom, Bloom Holloway."

"All right, Holloway…let's see…" I could hear computer keys clacking, and an interested sigh. "I'm sorry," she said, "But our records show that the phone account of your friend was terminated almost eight months ago."

"Eight months? It was ringing five minutes ago!"

"Sorry, that's what the data says."

"Well, maybe it's wrong."

She laughed, "Young lady, you'd have to be a very skilled hacker to be able to change our information that fast."

**Well, I guess Darcy **_**is**_** a skilled hacker! Ok, so Darcy is the mystery character (Remy, you were so close!), and she's a tad jealous of Bloom if you haven't noticed (You can't have a Winx Club story unless one of the Trix is in love with Baltor ;-)). So as I leave this chapter, I beg you to review, because I'm **_**so**_** interested to see what everyone thinks about it. And remember the basic fanfiction equation; **

**my story + reviews = faster updates!**

**Caio, everyone!**

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	11. I Never Go Back On My Word

**Well, season 4 is officially over, and no Baltor (And Nabu's gone! I'm so sad!). *Sigh* oh well, that's why there's fanfiction right! Ok, before I go into the chapter, I want to give a special thanks to my friend starla, who's basically been my motivation lately: namely; when I'm walking by my computer when I've got nothing to do, I'm thinking, 'Starla's gonna kill me if I don't update soon…' Thanks girl!**

For obvious reasons, to this day I hate yellow roses. I won't even touch them, they just bring back horrible memories. During the time I was out, the weird thing was, all these memories were darting in and out of my head; all from Colorado, all when I was young, and all before my parents' car crash.

And I'm sure I don't need to tell you what red-blond boy was in them, too.

Chapter 11: I Never Go Back On My Word

**Diana**

"Oh good, so it is a malfunction?" I had been on the AT&T hotline for at least a half hour. After trying to convince the woman (Stacey or Stephanie, something like that), she finally called up the tech department and found out there had just recently been a breach in the security system of the place. A hacker was just starting to get through the firewalls, and had even been hacking some names.

"Yes, and from the looks of it, you friend Bloom was the first on the list."

That wasn't making me feel better. "It just went for her stuff?"

"Not exactly. It went for random hacks, but none did as much damage. It was probably to make it seem like a random breach. I have to say, if it wasn't for you, the whole thing might have gone unnoticed."

"But why just Bloom's stuff?" I muttered more to myself before speaking directly to Stephanie (Stacey…whatever), "Were the attacks just by name or something; just first names with B or last names with H or even just users in the New York area?"

"No such consistency. Just random."

I was shaking. "Can I call some of her friends and see if this is a big mistake and call you back?"

"Absolutely. Just leave your name with me and when you call again, tell them who you are."

"Great. Diana Everhard."

"A-r-d, got it. Well, Diana, I hope your friend is ok."

"Me too. Me too…" I hung up. There was no point in calling Daphne yet –this could all be a big misunderstanding, anyway. So I went back to contacts and scrolled down to V. I decided trying Vanessa's cell phone would be the best way to get to her. She usually had it during business hours, Daph said. It rang once, twice, three times… "Hello?"

The shaking didn't stop. Vanessa's voice sounded a little high, like she was nervous and had been crying. I forced myself to calm down before speaking. "Hey Vanessa, its Diana."

"Oh, Diana," she sounded like she was calming down a little. "Hi, sweetie. Look, I'm sorry, but this really isn't a good time…"

"Sorry. I was just wondering if Bloom was there. Daphne said she was working there today?" I ended in a question, as if I wasn't sure. "There's something weird going on with her phone, and I was checking up on her."

She sighed shakily. "Her phone?"

"Her account was hacked."

She gave a little, tense, laugh. "Well, that can't be good."

I was nervous, too. "Mrs. Holloway (Mike and Oritel were related somehow, so it's the same last name), is everything ok?"

"No Diana, I'm afraid it's not. I got back here and found one of my new pots in ruins…"

"Is Bloom ok?"

"That's the thing; Bloom's gone."

**Bloom**

"Ugh…" the memory of days a long time ago darted in and out of my head, replaying like a movie; sometimes the images were fuzzy, other times they were crystal clear. It seemed like forever before I finally broke free of it. I was so close. Almost…

I blinked my eyes open. The room I was in was dim; it looked kind of like those interrogation rooms on Law & Order. I was lying on the carpeted floor – which although soft, felt cold and unfamiliar. My head was still partially in the memories, my ears were buzzing like Stella after a grande caramel-shot latte from Starbucks, and my vision was slightly blurred (but I could make out the room: basic square with a table and chairs, random junk lying around, and two windows on opposite walls, one of which was boarded up). It was also piercingly cold in the place. My long sleeved white tee layered with a blue tank top wasn't doing much for me.

"You're up? Wow, I thought you'd be out longer." The back of my head was throbbing, but I knew the voice wasn't in my head. I slowly pushed myself to my knees, then stood up, trying to keep the room in line. It was still spinning a little, and I reached out and grabbed the back of a nearby chair to keep myself balanced. "You gonna black out again?" the voice asked. I turned in it's general direction, and found a brunette girl about my age in a fitting grey hoodie and purple jeans. A lit cigarette was between her two fingers, the pack and some sort of metal device next to it. "I've got to admit," She continued, "That ceramic piece could have gotten you knocked out for at least ten hours. Takes will power to fight that. Which of course," she waved the cigarette a little, "I have very little of…on certain subjects, anyway. You want one?" She absently held out the pack to me, leaning back in the chair.

I stared at her for a few seconds. "Who the hell _are you_, anyway? And where am I?"

She gave a sly grin, revealing a surprisingly perfect smile: it must have taken serious cash to get it, especially if she smoked. "The name's Darcy. Nice to finally meet you, Bloom. You have no idea how much Baltor goes on about you sometimes. Men, right? As for the second question –"

"You know Baltor?" My thoughts still weren't straight.

"Mmm-Hmm," she said in agreement, "Now, as for the second question, welcome to the lower warehouse district of New York. The entire place for three square miles is abandoned factories, or in this case, an old broadcasting tower, scheduled for demolition in late 2011. Everything sealed off at the perimeter by a chain link fence, but I'm sure you already realized we have keys. So go ahead; scream all you want. No one's going to hear you."

I turned from her to the window: Darcy was right. Beyond the thick, pouring rain, I could see roofs and partial walls of old buildings with deep cracks and broken windows. They stretched out to the grey horizon, where a bolt of lighting flashed somewhere in the distance. As the thunder boomed, seven seconds later, I said, "I'm not going to scream."

"Brains, too! Wow, Baltor sure can pick 'em."

Baltor. Suddenly remembering him, and that Darcy had said his name a second ago, I spun to face her. "Where is Baltor? What did you do to him?"

To my utter shock, Darcy burst out laughing. "Oh my god…you may be awake, but you are _so_ out of it, kid." The laughing died down, and she leaned forward in her chair, looking serious. "Let me explain this to you; it's shockingly simple."

"I'm going to trust someone who knocked me out?"

"Baltor knocked you out," Darcy corrected, "He pushed that pot off the shelf and hit you. He knew about this, he helped me. He's been playing you like a card. You may as well be a queen on a blackjack table – by the way, have you ever seen him gamble? There was this whole incident in Vegas…you had to be there." She waved off.

Silence filled the room for a few seconds. "Baltor wouldn't do that."

"And he wouldn't kill your parents either," she took a drag of the cigarette, "Yet they're gone. Face it, you knew this would happen: you trust the convict, you get framed and thrown in jail."

"Baltor wouldn't do that," I repeated, "Where is he?"

"Around," Darcy waved her hand in a dramatic gesture, a trail of smoke following, "The lower level probably. He never wants to hang around me." She said that almost disappointedly. "Look, are you sure you don't want a light? It could be your last."

A shiver wracked through me: from the comment of the cold breeze blowing through the room I couldn't tell. "What do you man my last?"

The cigarette was in her mouth, and she took her sweet time taking it out and blowing a puff of smoke. Darcy opened her mouth to speak.

"What the hell!" But the voice didn't come from her mouth. I heard the door behind me open and a familiar melody of a voice (sounding very ticked off) saying, "God, you want to set off the smoke alarms and have the cops show up here? No fake I.D. could get us out of that! Go out on the covered deck if you –" he cut off. I turned again, praying my mind was playing tricks on me. But Baltor still stood there. "I – uh," It was funny. I'd never heard Baltor stammer before. I might have laughed if this were any other situation. "Look, there's –" he gave up speaking.

"Well," Darcy sounded bright, and I immediately wanted to slap her, "I think I'll go outside to finish this one." She stood, and walked over to Baltor with a coy smile. When I realized she was flirting with him, the urge to slap her grew a little. "You don't mind keeping Bloom company, do you?"

Baltor slowly grinned, but there was a dark quality to it. "Of course not."

She rolled her eyes a little, and turned and walked out the door, shutting it behind her. The moment she was gone, Baltor's grin turned to a look of distaste as he waved the stray smoke away from his face. "Idiot," he muttered, "I'd expect the girl to have at least some basic thoughts in the head of hers…"

Considering he wasn't talking to me, I spoke. "Baltor, _what_ is going on?"

He turned to look at me, really look, since he walked into the room. He shook his head, a small smirk grazing his lips. "Things."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"Who said it was supposed to?" I nearly lost my footing when I saw he was serious. Baltor laughed a little. "Starting to get the picture, Princess?" he emphasized the word with sarcasm, "Or are we still a little out of it?"

"I know this isn't a joke." A little bit of the anger I had tried so hard to forget was seeping into my voice.

"No, really? Did you just figure that out?" He walked over to the table and picked up the metal object next to the cigarette pack. He turned it over in his hands a few times, running his gloved hand over it. Finally after a little nod, more to himself, he took the object in his left hand, held it a little ways away from himself, and pressed a silver button on it. Something bright flashed out of it.

At the sight of Baltor holding the switchblade, I almost passed out again. He didn't seem to notice as he examined the blade. "Nice…" he said quietly, the blade bouncing the light of the room onto his face, adding an extra shimmer to his amazing gold eyes, "Wonder how well it works." Without warning, he drew his hand back and gave it a good throw. I screamed as I felt the blade the blade zoom past me, the displaced air creating a small breeze on my face. A metallic clang echoed through the room as the blade made contact with something. Turning around, I saw it lodged in the wood boarding up one window, the switchblade shaking from the blow the wood had given it. From behind, I could hear Baltor murmuring in approval; "Very nice…"

My first instinct was to run and grab the blade, using it to my own advantage. Too bad I couldn't feel my legs. Instead, I decided to speak, since my mouth was still functional. "You could have ripped my cheek off."

He gave an annoyed sigh. "I'm a good aim. Relax, you were fine."

"Are you trying to kill me?"

"I'm not _trying_ – However, I'm not promising."

Now that didn't make me feel any better. A fresh wave of adrenaline washed over me, and I found my legs were responding to my command. I darted forward to grab the blade. "Hey, not cool," I barley paid attention as I ran the short length of the room. I reached my hand out…

A hard grip stopped my wrist. The momentum sent a fiery jolt up my arm, and I cringed in pain. The other hand neatly plucked the blade from the wood. "Very clever idea," Baltor's hot breath tickled my ear, "I've got to admit Princess; fast reflexes, good resistance, thoughts that make sense (something told me he was referring to Darcy)…pity you can't stick around. You'd be good in this field." Three fingers held the switchblade while the other two reached up and pushed my bangs back behind my ear. The cold metal brushing my face sent another shiver through me.

"Kidnapping isn't exactly my style, thanks. And if you're so desperate for new mafia members –"

"More like an extended organization," Baltor moved his hand away from my face, folding up the blade. "Mafia's a bit strong."

"Like it matters. Put an ad in the newspaper if your 'extended organization' so desperate."

"Funny."

"I do my best." This was the most serious I'd ever seen him. But something was off in his voice – something really small. Baltor almost seemed to be forcing the words out (Like when Diana would ask questions when she palm reads), which told me he wasn't one-hundred percent honest. However, I knew the consequences would be nothing short of deadly if I pissed him off now. So I decided to try a different approach. "I want to know something."

"I'll tell you if you're entitled to it."

"Entitled? God, where am I, prison? Don't answer that." I quickly added. "Why the hell am I here? And what do you want? What's this all about?"

"I thought it'd be one question, but if you insist…" Baltor gripped my shoulders and turned me around. The two of us walked to the window (well, I just did due to the fact the switchblade was in his pocket: I'm not stupid). "What do you see, Bloom?"

"Rain? Or are you referring to the empty buildings for miles?"

"Not that long, I'd say three-quarter miles. But the fact is you're looking at what used to be the center of the whole city. Ruins now right?" He didn't let me speak, "Something that used to be the center of everything – something no one could live without, is now something everybody wants gone."

"Since when do you teach psychology?"

"Not the point. What I'm saying is that there are certain things people want out of the way; like this place. And," the pause told me he loved this, "Like you."

My heart stopped. However, all I could get out was, "Me?"

"Exactly. You see, the people running this mafia, as you call it, see you as a little problem Bloom – well, that's not true; they saw your whole family as a problem. But a crash killing more than two people would land a person in jail for a _very_ long time. No one could risk that. So we let you two go; you and Daphne, of course. But when a friend of mine hacked the system a few years later, we were more than shocked to find your records had mysteriously disappeared. No files to trace, no forwards, you never existed." I stood silently and listened, that trace of faking still evident in his voice. "Now, we were only more suspicious. We looked everywhere; immediate family, close friends, we trailed Diana for a while. No one contacted you, and no one could find you. Everyone gave up; by the time I was nineteen, anyone I asked assumed you were out of the country; and so did I. Imagine my shock when I found you in the alley that night. It was almost like I had a chance again."

Well, that explained it. _Immediate_ family. Mike and Dad had been once removed or something. But something didn't make sense."A chance at what?"

"I can't tell you that. But the point is, Now that you've mysteriously reappeared, we can't have you waltzing away again. And of course the chain reaction: You come down…"

"Daphne comes down." I whispered more to myself.

There was a soft chuckle. "Exactly."

My head was working overtime, trying to piece things together and figure out motives. My thoughts drifted back to the car ride at the end of September, and the whole 'fight' Baltor and I were in. _Looks like I taught you well…_ Let's see how well. "Let me get this straight," I said, turning around to face him, "You telling me the chances of me living through the night are slim to none."

He shrugged. "Something like that." I noticed he didn't meet my gaze. I resisted the urge to smile, despite the fact if he was serious, I was majorly screwed.

"And you're ok with that?" I asked. When he didn't say anything, I went one step farther. "Baltor, can you honestly look at me and say you don't care what happens to me?" No response as he directed his gaze to the ceiling. "You can't, can you?" I said this more to myself out of surprise (happy surprise, I might add). "Then why are you doing this? What's the point? I know I'm not 'entitled' to know why I'm a problem, but if you don't want anything to happen to me, why don't you just help me get out of here?"

He closed his eyes. Then shook his head. And gave that dark smile again. Baltor opened his eyes and directed his gaze to me. "_So_ close, Bloom, so close. But however, not close enough. What happens tonight happens. It's too late now."

Fear shot through my body. "You mean I…" I reached back and gripped the window frame, considering I didn't want to touch the man in front of me. "I thought you cared about me."

"And I thought your parents were nice people. As life goes on, you realize what happens to yourself comes before what happens to others. And if said person has been leading you on for a while…well, that's a bonus to see them go down, isn't it?"

"Leading you on? What are you talking about?"

He rolled his eyes, looking very annoyed with me. "S-k-y. Ringing a bell? Riven and I happen to be good friends. But anyway," I couldn't speak as he changed topics – for I don't know, the _billionth_ time since I'd met him, leaning in so his face was close to mine, "Let me spell this out; your not getting out of here. In a few hours, Darcy's sister coming here and driving you to wherever the hell she's supposed to. She'll knock you out if you don't cooperate. Darcy will knock you out if you don't cooperate. _I'll_ knock you out if you don't cooperate. So what I'd suggest is to just be a good little girl and be quiet for a while."

The back of my eyes were stinging, tears of fear threatening to fall. I refused to let them fall. "You won't even let me explain what happened with Sky?"

"I'm not particularly interested, Princess. I know what happened, so why hear it again?"

"Maybe it's different."

"Doubt it." He shot back. I opened my mouth, desperate for something to say, but found nothing. I kept the tears back as Baltor spoke, "Anything else?"

I looked up at him then – right into his eyes. They showed absolutely nothing, as though it had taken him years to master the trick. "Just get away from me."

He looked a little surprised at the comment, but only nodded at me. Without a word, he leaned away from me, and walked to the other side of the room, sitting down on one of the chairs, putting his feet up on the table. He took his phone out and began doing something on it.

I turned back to the window and watched the storm rage as the sun set, sobbing quietly.

**Diana**

"This can't be happening!"

"I know Stella, I know," I insisted. After I hung up with Vanessa, I gave Stella a ring. However, I had a feeling I'd done a better job of scaring the crap out of her then figuring out this whole mystery. "I'm sorry all I did was scare you."

"Forget that! I'll call the guys and we'll see what we can do."

I took a deep breath. "Thanks. Call if you find anything."

"No problem." And we hung up.

I went back to my contacts and dialed the number I'd been dreading. Daphne was _not_ going to be happy. But I couldn't keep this to myself. If I did, they'd never find my body. I dialed the number, walking out to the living room. Different ideas of what to say popped into my head, and I was running through them as I paced nervously. But, between the rings, I could barley catch the sound of Beyoné's 'Single Ladies'. "You are kidding me," I muttered, going and walking into Daphne's room. Her phone lay vibrating on her bed.

"Daph!" I yelled more to myself, flipping my phone shut. Her phone stopped seconds later. Rolling my eyes, I took her phone and hit 'Ignore Call'. Great, now what?

I thought for a moment. And snapped my fingers. I grabbed Daphne's phone again, and went to her contacts list. I scrolled through it, slightly annoyed that it was set by last names. I passed number after number until I reached the L's. About the third name, I found it. The pixel's formed the name on the screen. _Linahan, Baltor._

"Daphne, do you _owe_ me."

**Well, that about does it for this chapter. Of course, reviews are so **_**so**_** helpful, and make me very happy…so you know I'm asking for them. And, there is another reason to review, because the closer this story gets to ending (which is still a little ways away), I do need to know your opinion on the legendary s word:**

**sequel**

**Tell me what you think! **


	12. Palm Reading

**Happy almost Thanksgiving! Man, the holidays came fast this year. Anyway, here's the newest part of Unexpected. I'm doing calculating in my head, and there will most likely be three chapters after this, and maybe a sequel (still thinking, still need opinions!). But until then, keep reading! And, another thanks, this time to my friend Nicole who's been editing for me lately. Let's face it; I'm no good at editing. So thanks! **

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Pop quiz. You are _majorly_ screwed when:

A. The guy you thought you might love has totally broken your trust (again) and ruined your life (again), for his own benefit.

B. You have no idea where the f-blank-c-k you are, but do know your chances of survival are slim to none.

Despite A and B, you really want to, C. bitch-slap the girl who keeps hitting on the guy mentioned in option A, or

D. All of the above.

I could really go on longer. There aren't enough letters in the alphabet to list my options. I was scared, I was tired, and I was going to die. That scared me the most. Death had always scared me, ever since the day Daphne called me when I was home alone and said in a shaking voice, 'something happened'. But to be totally honest, I was thrilled that despite all the horrible choices, they all could be counteracted with

E. Have a friend who is _seriously_ good at guilt-tripping

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Chapter 12: Palm Reading

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**Baltor**

Darcy had come back into the room, and was currently sitting in a chair reading some gossip magazine I could have cared less about. I was leaning against the wall with my MacBook Air, working on hacking the NYPD system to make sure I could cancel any missing reports that were filed on Bloom (along with that I was wondering who's idea it was to hang a signed baseball bat in here: I just didn't get it.) Speaking of Bloom, she had been silent for a while, just staring out the window. I could tell by the look on her face that she was deep in thought; probably thinking of ways to kill me when she got out of this. But then I remembered it wasn't when, it was if; if she got out of this. I mean, I didn't know what would happen to her. Someone else from the ring – Darcy's sister – was coming to grab her. Our boss is happy, we get the money…and everybody wins. I glanced at Bloom. Well, most of us anyway.

"Baltor." I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to Darcy.

"What?"

She motioned to my phone on the table, which was vibrating. Looking at it, I noticed the California area code. I raised an eyebrow…who did I know in California? Well, I guess I could use some entertainment. "Watch her." I said to Darcy. She waved her hand in a 'yeah, yeah, just leave me alone' gesture.

"And where would I go?" Bloom asked angrily.

"Nowhere. That's the point." I replied coldly, walking out of the room. Out in the hall, I slid the screen up. "Hello?"

"Alright, where is she?!" I heard a female voice snap.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, where is she?"

"Look kid, you've obviously got the wrong number," I said irritably.

"Oh no I don't Baltor."

I paused.

"Don't remember me, do you boy?" The voice spoke, clearly amused. "What a surprise. The smog in that big 'ol city finally get to your brain? Or are you still too busy learning Latin so you can understand miss human translator?"

I had an idea, so very cautiously I spoke. "Diana?"

"Who else?"

"God Diana," I said, relaxing, "Don't do that. You can at least tell me who you are before you go off at me for whatever reason. Speaking of which, how did you get my number?"

"I'm living with Daphne. I'm calling for her."

"Fascinating." I said, not even trying to hide the boredom in my voice, "Well, when _she_ gets the guts to talk to me herself for whatever purpose, have her give me a ring." I ended the call, and got little luck. About seven seconds later, my phone started ringing again. Sighing, I hit 'accept call'. "You have exactly five minutes to explain this starting now; so make it quick."

"Where's Bloom?"

I pretended to sound confused and annoyed. "How the hell should I know? I haven't seen the girl in years."

"Oh really?" Diana said sarcastically.

"Yes really. Goodbye."

"Baltor I swear if you-" I hit disconnect. It only took her five seconds to redial this time. Again, I answered. "Yeah?"

"Will you quit doing that, you bastard?" Diana snapped.

"Four and a half minutes," I replied calmly, ignoring the comment.

"I'd have more time if you hadn't disconnected me. Twice!"

"Would you like it to happen a third time? I'd be more than okay with it."

"No, thank you!" I heard her give a long sigh. "Look, I know about everything that's been happening the last two weeks. Daphne knows about all of it, too."

"Should have known the girl was still crazy about me." I said with a fake pitying tone_,_ "Where'd she hide the cameras?"

"Not like that, idiot!"

"Oh, right, of course……so _you_ hid the cameras?"

"Baltor!" she screeched, stretching out each syllable of my name. I smirked. Ticking Diana off was one of the few pleasures in life I still had. "What I mean is that Bloom called Daphne on September 21st and told her everything that was going on. You've been hanging out with B ever since that little rescue stunt, haven't you?"

"……Yes." I finally said. There was no point in lying to Diana, anyway; she can usually figure it out.

"Hmm…I see." I would of given a lot to knock that smirk I knew she was wearing off her face, "And even after admitting that little detail, you still have no idea where she is?"

"Haven't we been over this?"

"I talked to Vanessa." Diana said matter-of-factly. I paled slightly. It was good thing she couldn't have seen me. I did, however, keep my voice stable and sounding slightly bored. "So?" I asked.

"About three hours ago there was a crash in the shop, and she found a broken pot and Bloom missing. Come on Baltor. Where is she? She won't answer her phone, and Stella doesn't know…"

"And Stella is?"

"The one your getting the money from." Diana said sarcastically. I had to give Bloom credit; she had told about the date with accuracy.

"Oh right, Stella. Blonde hair, brown eyes…never met before, _that_ Stella?" I didn't wait for Diana's response as I continued. "I'll say this again; I have no idea. Try calling her boyfriend." I spat out the last word, "As for me, you've wasted enough of my time. Kindly take down your cameras, wherever they may be, and leave me alone." I took the phone away from my ear and started to hang up; for good this time, when I heard Diana yell (in an annoyed tone, I might add), "She doesn't have a boyfriend!"

It seemed like an eternity of silence followed as I let those words sink in. Very slowly, I put the phone back to my ear. "What did you say?"

"She doesn't have a boyfriend. I mean, the last one I know of was that guy, Andy, she dated when she first moved up there. You know, the guy in our ninth grade Algebra class? Turns out he's out there as a -"

"What about Sky?" I cut in.

To my utter shock, Diana laughed, "They're just friends! Daphne was joking and tried calling him her boyfriend and Bloom nearly exploded. Wait –is that why your so upset? I gotta admit, you never stuck me as the jealous type, Baltor. It just seems so unlike you. And on the subject of surprises; how do you even know about Sky?"

"I…well, I guess they're friends," I said more to myself before addressing Diana, "One of the guys I'm friends with at a bar I go to apparently knows him."

"Brandon?" I was surprised she knew their names.

"No, not Brandon. Riven."

"That loudmouth jerk." I heard Diana mutter.

"I'm guessing you two hit it off when you met." I said with a hint of amusement.

"Oh sure. We were two peas in a pod."

"Nobody says that anymore, you obviously didn't get the memo."

"Whatever." She replied, "But anyway, no, Bloom and Sky aren't dating. If anything happened, I'm sure Sky did it and Bloom said something to shut him up."

I could practically feel my heart skip a beat. It was a miracle my legs didn't give out. "Are you serious?"

"Oh no, Baltor, I'm just saying it for kicks to see how long you'd go for it. Of course I'm serious!"

I put a hand on my forehead and groaned. This had to be a nightmare. If she wasn't dating that blonde kid…what had I done?

"Taking a guilt trip?"

"None of your business." I shot back.

"I would consider it my business."

I was silent for a moment. "Why?"

I heard Diana pause on the other end of the line. For a second, I thought she'd hung up. But then her voice came through. "Because you –and I can't believe I'm saying this– but you're my friend Baltor. And I'm sure Bloom's already told you this, but friends care. And let me finish before you start going off at me." Diana was smart. My mouth was open, just ready to retort. "I'm sure you had your reasons for why you did what you did to Oritel and Miriam. And I'm sure someday you'll tell us them. But aside from that, I'm still your friend. So I do care. You could say it comes with the title. And though she doesn't show it anymore, Daphne cares about you, too. And Bloom."

I gave a small laugh. "I'm not so sure about that last one."

"I'm positive. In fact, let me tell you something. Bloom cares the most. She likes you, Baltor…maybe even loves you. Now why? I have no idea. But she liked you before all this happened, and she still does now. She'd do anything for you, just like you'd do anything for her."

"Big deal. I'd do anything for you and Daphne, too."

"Don't interrupt. You know you care about her more than anything. If you were never they're for her…I don't know. Maybe she'd be like Mitzi…"

"You mean living it up in a London prep school or wherever the heck she is?"

"Baltor…Mitzi isn't exactly in prep school. She's, well, she was in jail."

I couldn't help but let out a surprised snicker. Looks like I wasn't the only one who got in the wrong side of the law. "Dare I ask what happened?"

"She committed shoplifting and grand theft auto when she was eighteen. The only reason she's in Europe is to try and find a job. Let me ask you, if Bloom was going to do that, what would you say?"

"Hmm…have fun, grab a two thousand dollar watch for me, and remember R stands for reverse if you steal a stick shift car? Oh, and head for the highway when the cops come for you. Great tip."

"Baltor!"

"Ok, fine!" I said, cutting the sarcasm, "Like hell I'd let her do that. I'd strap her to a chair if she even thought about it." I couldn't tell if I was shocked at the fact I'd just said that, or that I meant it.

"Uh huh." Diana sounded smug. "I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"Oh come on! Your so in love with her!"

"Sure I am, and Daphne can cook, and you can see the future."

"Deny me all you want," Diana said in the same tone, "But I'm a girl; I'm good with the whole inner-feelings thing. You did something to hurt Bloom once you thought she was dating Sky. Of course, you only did it because you were jealous. Now that I've told you the truth though, your hitting Guilt City, U.S.A.. Because the things is, you don't know how to fix this little problem you've gotten yourself into, right?" I stayed silent. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Ok little miss physic, how do I get out of it?"

Diana laughed. "Aww, come on, you know how it goes. I give you the right thing to do, and the easy thing to do. I don't tell you which one you _should_ do."

"This isn't some crummy romance movie."

"Oh, and speaking of catch," she said, completely ignoring me, "I just saw the time. Five minutes up. I guess I won't be keeping you."

"Wait, Dian-"

_Click._ The line went dead. As fast as my hands could move, I hit redial. The phone rang twice before a voice came on. "Hey, it Diana. Either my phone's dead again or I had too much fun at a party and finally got thrown in jail. Either way, leave a message and I'll call you back when I find my charger…or Daphne bails me out. Bye!" Dang that girl, sending me to voicemail.

I heard the tone. "Diana…" I started angrily. But for some reason, I couldn't do it. I couldn't curse at her, tell her what a low life she was, or how I hoped the reason she had hung up was because she ran out of minutes to use the pay phone at the county jail. I couldn't say any of that because…I knew she was right.

_We listen, remember_ Darcy's words from the café echoed within my head. I knew that anything I'd say they would know. Anything I'd said they knew. I had two choices if front of me, and suddenly I knew which one I needed. I also knew that I'd have to work fast; after all, if they were really listening in on this phone call, I was already in trouble. But after everything that had recently happened, I found myself doing something I never expected.

I smiled. "Thanks. I owe you one."

"Of course you do." I jumped hearing her at the other end of the line. "So," she asked, "What's the _real_ scoop on Bloom?"

I glanced through the glass in the door at the redhead. She was staring out the window at the view, her eyes red. I could tell she was shaking a little, and there was a clear trail of dried tears on her cheek. Suddenly, I wanted Diana to reach through the phone and slap me across the face. "It's a long story."

"Ok. Call me with details later."

"If I'm not in jail."

"Jail?" Diana squeaked. "Baltor, _what did you do_?"

"Something really bad. Di, listen to me; if I don't call you back in fifteen minutes, I want you to re-dial my cell. If I don't pick up, call the police."

"And tell them what exactly?"

I took a deep breath. "Tell them that there's a hostage here who's being traded in a gang ring. They're trading her for one hundred thousand dollars in cash that's been stolen from a Wells Fargo in New Jersey. The old NYC Broadcasting Tower in the East Ring. Say it's life and death."

"Your in a gang?! Baltor…"

"You need to do this."

"But you and Bloom…and what's Daphne going to say…"

"Bloom's going to be fine, trust me. I'm going to try to get her out of here. And Daphne…Daphne needs to be on the first plane out here. Do me a favor and make sure she doesn't bring any weapons to kill me; she can't afford going to jail now." My breath was unsteady. "The NYPD, you got it, Diana?"

"Yeah. And Baltor."

"What?" I asked.

"Be careful."

Through it all, I found the ability to smile. "I will." I heard a click at the end of the line, I sign she'd hung up. But before I did, I heard what sounded like someone else getting on the line; someone in the gang. "You," the cold voice hissed, "You are going to be sorry, boy. So sorry."

I shivered involuntarily. "Catch me if you can." I hung up the phone.

**Diana**

I sat down on Daphne's bed with a thud: my legs weren't working very well. I hummed a few bars of Fireflies by Owl City, desperate to get my heart rate down.

Baltor was in a gang.

Bloom was in trouble.

Daphne didn't have her cell phone.

All three factors, and Baltor's voice repeating 'life and death' in my mind wasn't helping me. I finally worked out a plan in my head, and raced into my room, dialing my phone in the process. "Hello?"

"Dwayne? It's Diana." Dwayne had finally gotten over the H1N1 (it was really a cold; we just annoyed him about it), and was back working. He's a really good friend of ours, and even better, usually had shifts with Daph.

"Oh, hey. I was meaning to –"

"Are you at the store?" I interrupted, opening my closet door to grab my sneakers.

He seemed a little surprised. "No. I had an early shift. I'm going into my all-night at LAX now. I'm in ticketing."

"Damn it," I muttered, jamming my left foot into my shoe.

"Why? What's up?"

"Daphne was being a moron and left her phone here. There's a family emergency going on, and now I'm going to have to run all the way to the store."

"Oh, fun. Like a death or something?"

I did _not_ want to think of death, but all I said was; "Yeah, something like that. I'll go find her on my own."

"Ok. Sorry I couldn't be any help."

I grabbed my keys off my nightstand. "I know, thanks for…hold on a second, did you say you were working at LAX?"

"…Yeah."

"Are you near a flight board?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"When's the next flight on your airline to New York?"

"Um, hang on. Next one's at…yikes, three am."

"Book us."

"'Scuse me?"

"Get me two tickets on that flight."

"Di, why would…"

"Just do it!" I raced to the door, my keys and Daphne's cell phone in one hand, my purse in the other, and my cell between my cheek and shoulder. "It's a long story, and I promise I'll explain later, but I need those tickets. Right now, I've got to run a mile and a half to Cali Surf Shop."

**Bloom**

"Who was on the line?" Darcy asked as the door creaked open and Baltor came back in. I glanced at him; his face was a shade paler. I didn't bother to look for too long, and turned my gaze back to the window.

"Oh, wrong number. I've been getting so many of the things lately…I need a new phone."

"Don't we all? There are some extra one's downstairs…your model, even. I can just tell them to hook it up to the system, and you can take one."

"Yeah…" I heard a noise, and when I glanced back, I saw Baltor had absently picked up the baseball bat that was hanging on the wall. "A broadcasting tower, and they have a baseball bat. Go figure."

"Not like we chose the place," Darcy said coyly, and I could tell she was hitting on him again. I felt like gagging, "You ever play?"

"A little I guess. I was pretty good with a bat, huh, Bloom?" he smirked at me. I turned my head sharply away. Baltor gave a low chuckle. "Hey Darcy, how much longer to we have to put up the little princess, here?"

"My sister just texted me. She'll be here in about five minutes."

"Perfect." Baltor walked over behind her, and absently reached out and played with her hair a little (Again, I felt like gagging), "You know Darcy, there's something I've always wanted to say to you."

Baltor couldn't see her facial expression, but I saw her close her eyes and smirk. "And what would that be, handsome?" I rolled my eyes and turned back to the window as Baltor spoke.

"I hope I never see you again."

There was a loud bang. I turned around in surprise as Darcy crumpled to the floor. I could already see the beginning of a decent sized bump on her head, and when I looked back, Baltor was standing with the bat, looking pretty damn proud of himself.

He had just knocked her out.

**Aren't I just horrible, leaving like that? I must ask that you not kill me (I enjoy living) and just tell me how horrible I am when you review (hint, hint).**


	13. Blue Flames

**Happy holidays! It's Christmas vacation, so that means updates! And here's another personal shout out – this time to my 'rockin friend Bloom, the only person who may be as crazy as me and my friend Audrey in this world. Scary thought, ain't it?**

**Disclaimer: I only own Diana – she's my OC, and not the Diana from the series. So technically I invented her first…hey, I can sue Ingino and get the character rights! Sweetness!**

* * *

Here's a random chemistry fact for you; blue flames are more powerful than red ones.

Yeah yeah, I know, you think I've finally lost it. Just hear me out for a second. Blue flames have more heat in them, so they're automatically more powerful. However, it takes more power to create them. That's why in a forest fire, red flames only, unlike the fire in our old chemistry lab, where the very tops were blue. But my point is, it takes something non-organic to do that. Like a stove or a gas fire…or just gasoline and a spark.

* * *

Chapter 13: Blue Flames

* * *

**Baltor**

"Well," I said, dropping the bat to the ground, "She took that well."

Bloom stared at Darcy for a second. "What did you do?"

"Hit her with the bat…the thing was probably a knockoff anyway. But it'll buy us some time."

"Us?"

"Yes us now come on; we've got to get you out of here before Darcy's sister shows up. If it's the younger one we'll probably be fine," I started explaining, heading towards the door, "The girl's nineteen. It's the older one I'm concerned about. She's from the car chase –" I stopped abruptly when I realized I was alone. Turning around, I saw Bloom was standing, and staring daggers at me.

"Do you honestly think I'm going with you!" she snapped.

"You want to be here when _that_ wakes up?" I gestured to the girl on the floor, the neon purple lighter she used to light her cigarettes poking out of the pocket of her jeans.

"Rather than with you!" Bloom spat, her voice venom.

Well, pretending I hadn't done anything wrong obviously wasn't going to work. It was worth a shot, anyway. "Bloom…I'm really trying to help you here –"

She laughed. "Really? Kidnapping me is helping me? How is that Baltor, because I never took psychology, so I'm not sure." Before I could reply she started in again. "I trusted you! Do you know how hard that was? To do it again, only to have you break it again?"

"Bloom, here me out…" I took a step towards her, and she quickly took a step back.

"Before you trade me for money and have me killed? You know, that'll just leave Daphne alive. How do you plan to get rid of her? Hijack the plane she's on when she's flying to my funeral?"

I decided it would better not to tell her that was a really decent idea. "Ok, I deserve that. But you've got to trust me –"

"Did you not hear me? How can you expect me to trust you? I can't do that anymore, I can't Baltor!"

I felt like I'd gotten a blow to the head at that last comment. "I deserved that."

"Yeah you did. You know, I actually believed you for a while; that you were actually sorry for what you did to me –"

"I am sorry."

"No your not!" I had never seen Bloom so angry in my life, "I bet Darcy thought it was funny, watching me be an idiot. Thinking there was this crazy possibility I lov –" she stopped abruptly, but she didn't need to finish. "I bet you loved watching it, too," Bloom was correcting herself, "Watching me just…be so naïve."

I was about to reply when I caught the distant sound of a powerful engine and tires screaming on wet roads. Darcy's sister. For effing sake…. "Bloom, I never thought you were stupid," I said a bit absently, going over to the window to try and get a good look outside, "But did you just hear that? That's trouble. So let's go." I held out my hand, even though I knew the gesture was pointless.

"Like hell," she said stubbornly, crossing her arms. "I –" The tires screamed again, _much_ louder. We both jumped a little, and I saw a fuzzy white image zoom by in the rain.

Frick. That was Icy's car – Isabella's her name, but she goes by Icy. So much for Stormy showing up…

"What the heck was that?" Bloom asked walking over to the window to try and see. Then it seemed she remembered she was supposed to be staying away from me. Before she could move though, I grabbed her wrist. She tried struggling a little, but I put my other arm around her waist. As always, though, Bloom like proving she could succeed at things. Finally, I started pulling her closer, little by little. She seemed to get the more she struggled the closer she got, so it didn't take long for her to stop. "Bloom, look at me for a second." I said as she turned to try and look out the window. She ignored me. "Bloom, come on."

She spun her head so fast her hair wacked me across the face. When red streaks stopped spotting my vision, I found Bloom's piercing (and angry) eyes staring into mine. "Look, I know you've got about a million reasons not to trust me –"

"Really? Just a million?"

Now of all times she picks up on my sarcasm. "Yes just a million. But the thing is, _both_ of us have very few options right now. And I for one don't want to die."

"You didn't care a few minutes ago."

I heard the engine shut off. "You said it yourself; I don't want anything to happen to you." Bloom didn't respond, so I went on, taking my hand off her waist and pointing out the window. "If you go with her, you may as well get your headstone picked out now, because I'm guaranteeing you won't come back. Even with Diana on standby; I'll explain later," I said when I saw her surprised look, "But, I spent nearly half the summer here creating a round of counterfeit checks worth two million dollars."

"Sounds like fun. What's your point?"

_Don't be mad at her, this is all your fault anyway_. "The point is I know every part of this building. I can get you out of here and hotwire Darcy's car. And if you want, I'll get out of your life the second your safe."

I heard the door open from four stories down. "Hello!" I slightly giddy voice called, "Anyone there? Darcy? Baltor?"

Bloom's eyes widened. "Is she…"

"High? Either that or drunk. Hard to tell these days. So that brings me back to your options; me, or miss 'let's smoke some crack and have a few vodka shots'."

Bloom sighed through gritted teeth before directing her gaze back to me. "Swear on your life this isn't a trick?"

"If it is, I will personally fund my dad's alcohol addiction for the next two years."

"That should get you flat broke."

"Exactly."

I heard a door open down the hall. "Baltor? You guys up here?"

High. She was speaking complete thoughts, so she was defiantly high. Bloom bit her bottom lip, then nodded. I was about to call when a voice beat me to it.

"Icy!" I turned and saw Darcy was about twenty-five percent back into it, and already yelling, "In here! The bastard double crossed us!"

That sent my mind into immediate auto mode. I didn't have time to think, I just grabbed a gun hanging from one of the walls, and dropped my phone to the ground. If I couldn't hear it, I couldn't answer, and Diana would know there was trouble. And, oh yeah, there was one more thing. "Run!"

**Bloom**

"Run!"

I didn't even think, just grabbed Baltor's hand and did what he said. We both darted out of the room and ran in the opposite direction of a girl with literally white hair. She was obviously messed up because her reflexes were about four seconds delayed. By the time her blue frosted eyes were burning with rage, Baltor and I were halfway toward the stairs. I got to the space first, and ran to the side so he could get through. Baltor darted in and spun on his heels, thrusting the door shut behind him. "That should be a little time –"

There was a loud bang, and the old wood door practically split where the bullet had lodged itself in the wood. "Or maybe not," Baltor added, sounding irritated. He turned to me, "Go down to the second floor, and stay near the walls. I'll be right behind you."

I didn't think, just ran. I knew Baltor was behind me, and for now, that was enough to get my heart at a slightly normal rhythm.

There was another gunshot, and more cracking wood. Then a much more powerful thud and splintering wood even worse. The next time I glanced up, I saw the girl glaring down at us with a gun pointed. I was frozen for a second before I heard another shot. Icy gasped in pain, dropped her gun over the railing. Looking behind me, I saw Baltor with a handgun.

"Icy, forget it!" I heard Darcy call from the hallway. "I've got a better idea." Icy glared down at us then darted back into the hallway.

Baltor looked relived. "Hurry. That was my only shot and I think I just got her hand." He threw the gun to the ground, and we went on.

I pushed the door to the second level open (I way happy to find out these one's were made of metal) and let Baltor lead. He hesitated for a second before darting to the third room on my left. I followed him, shutting the door behind me. "How the heck did she bust down that door?"

"Probably whatever she was smoking. I forget the name of it, but it gives you crazy strength. She once lifted up a two hundred pound guy and hurled him across a bar." He looked up as though he could see them two stories up. After a second Baltor raced over to a window and yanked it open. A cold gust of wind blew in, and I shivered. I heard him murmur something like 'sorry' to me before he stuck his head out the window. "That's not too bad a drop, maybe seven or eight feet. It should be – shit!" He yanked himself back in, and I saw (to my utter shock) part of an engine zoom by the window; something Darcy had obviously thrown at him. "All right, new plan then."

"No kidding."

Baltor gave me a small grin. "First things first," he said as I heard pounding heels. Baltor dug into his coat pocket and yanked out two keys. He tossed one to me. "Lock the entrances to this level. That'll give us a little advantage. You take the closer one."

I didn't give any form of understanding the order other than a nod. I raced out and down the hall as I heard the heels clacking against the stairs. I jammed the key into the lock and twisted it to lock. I tested it and found it was sealed. I took my hand off just as the handle started moving from the other side. I was practically frozen at the thought of a killer on the other side of the door, but I still grabbed the key out of the lock and stepped back slowly. Eventually the movement stopped and I heard retreating footsteps through the thin walls, along with a cold laugh. That certainly didn't make me feel better.

"Did you get it?" Baltor was suddenly next to me, a little out of breath.

I nodded, not even looking at him as I handed the key back. "Icy almost made it in, but I got it." My voice was a little shaky.

He placed a hand on my shoulder. "Your ok, Bloom." He reminded my softly.

I shook my head, Baltor's voice clearing the pure fear from me. "I know. What's the plan?"

We both headed for a different room, still on the left side of the building. "The windows on this side above us are either jammed or boarded up. We can get out here and make a break for Darcy's car." He held up the keys to her burgundy Lexis (I had seen it when the rain temporarily let up) as we walked in the room. "I don't think Darcy has any more of that jet engine left…"

"That was a _jet_ engine?"

"Yeah…We know this guy in Montreal who works with planes…you know what, I'll explain it later."

"Good idea." I said as Baltor started working on the window. This one was obviously a bit harder to open. About ten seconds later I said, "Maybe you could shoot it…"

"Can't. Icy and Darcy are doing total guesswork on where were trying to get out of; the gunshot would tip them off. And that was my only bullet, remember?"

"Oh, right. I just –" I stopped abruptly as I caught the scent of something strong. I resisted the urge to gag as I tried to wave it away. "Can you smell that?"

Baltor look up with a strange expression on his face. "Yeah I do…is that…?"

"Gasoline?" I finished. What's that stuff doing here? Did you get it with the jet engine?" I couldn't help but be a little sarcastic.

"Nah, we probably got it off someone for free ID's. But Icy was taking you to upstate New York, so she was probably going to fuel up her car before she headed off. It probably spilled or something…"

I caught another whiff of it. "No, it seems to strong." I walked to the doorway and peered down the hall. I was shocked to find something seeping under the stairwell door. I raced over and ran my fingers through it, lifting it to my nose and sniffing it. I fought the urge to gag again as I headed back. "Baltor its gasoline, it's seeping under the door. On this end and the other one."

Baltor finally stopped tampering with the window latch and looked at me. "Are you sure?"

"I felt it. The stuff's thicker than water and smells like gasoline."

He leaned against the wall. "Why in the world would she do that?" Baltor was talking more to himself. His mouth was moving, but the words were staying in his head. I could make out 'oil' and 'what's the point'. He finally stopped, his eyes wide with something I'd never seen in Baltor before; fear. "Darcy."

"What about her?"

"Darcy's been smoking since she was fourteen."

"So?"

"Bloom, think! If you smoke, what do you always need with you?"

It took me a second, but I got it. My eyes went wide, too. "A lighter. Those two are going to set themselves and the place on fire just to kill us. How much oil do you have?"

Baltor muttered some really bad words and banged his fist on the wall. "I have no idea. All I know is that it's too much to count." He started messing with the latch again, at a bit more frantic pace. "Come on, come on…"

"Use the switchblade to un-jam it."

He gave me a grin and grabbed it out of his pocket. "Like I said, you'd go far here."

"I thought the point of this was to run away from those guys, not tell me I'd be great as one of them."

"Force of habit. Sorry. Ah, finally." The window sprung open, letting in another gust of ice cold wind. Baltor leaned his head out and looked around (above him first; probably to make sure no other plane part was going to hit him) before easing his left foot and leg out the window, so he was half in and half out of the building. He extended his hand out to me. "Come on, I'll help you down. There's a ledge out here, you can stand on it."

Looking out, I saw he was right. The drop wasn't bad either, and I could clearly see Darcy's car. I felt a little calmer as I put one of my feet out the window onto the ledge, while Baltor put his other foot out, resting on the window, his hand was holding mine and keeping me steady against the wind; _I'm going to be fine, I'm going to be fine, I'm going to be fine_...

I smelled smoke. It was just a trace, but enough for me to detect it. That foggy, black, and thick scent that I'd come to know in my life. Usually – when it came to anyone – fire scared people. The thought of burning, suffocating in the smoke, and the just plain fear of it engulfing you and slowly knocking you unconscious…

So, why wasn't I scared? Why was there this huge adrenaline rush of pure excitement, and me thinking, 'I can do this.'?

The fire was seconds away from being set, and I had never felt better in my life. I had no idea what it was, like something inside me was waking up after an eternity. I suddenly knew this fire was going to get me, no matter what. But it could be me – just me who lost something then. No one else had to. Baltor didn't have to.

"Bloom!" Baltor was shaking my hand a little in his grasp, "Come on, there isn't a lot of time. You need to get out of here"

I looked at him for what felt like an hour, even though it had to be a second and a half. This crazy part of my brain kicked into gear even more, and I didn't know what I was doing, but I did it.

I yanked my hand out of his grasp, and stepped back inside, crouching down so I was level with him. "It's my turn to be sorry." I said softly, giving him a half smile.

"Bloom wha-"

I cut him off with a kiss. It was quick; just pressing my lips against his to shut him up. But it still felt amazing, unlike anything else. I could have been shocked by lightning at that moment and not even cared.

I pulled back. "Go. Good luck."

I jabbed him on the shoulder. The ledge was so slippery with rain and the wind factoring in, I pushed him out the window. Baltor fell but still landed gracefully. He ran a ways away from the building so he could turn and get a good look at me. He opened his mouth to yell at me, and I could already hear the 'what the hell were you thinking?'

I heard the explosion. A blinding light surrounded me, and then everything went black.

**Daphne**

"Daph! Emergency!"

I glanced up from the guy I was helping to find my friend in the doorway, panting hard. Here shoes were partially off, and her phone was dangling from her right hand. I could still see the 'call ended' flashing on the screen of the silver LG Shine. She had obviously just been talking to someone.

The guy looked at her like she was crazy. "I…think I'll go now." He handed me the yellow surfboard he'd rented, along with a slip of paper. I put the board back and opened the slip of paper which had (to my disgust) the guys number written on it. He winked at me before walking out past Diana. I rolled my eyes and dumped the number in the trash. "What's up? Did you talk to Bloom?"

She took a deep breath and pushed some of her sweat-drenched bangs behind her ear. "Not Bloom exactly…"

I raised an eyebrow. "Then who?"

"Well –"

The store phone blared, distracting me. Diana looked particularly annoyed about being interrupted as I answered it; "Thank you for calling Cali Surf Shop. I'm Daphne, how can I help you?"

I heard a distant chuckle among the sound of…police sirens? "Grown up to fast, Miss Holloway."

I grinned. "Hello Officer Baker." Officer Stuart Baker had been helping me and Bloom out ever since the car crash. He had helped us relocate in New York, and kept me calm during all the court hearings back home. And he wasn't like a regular cop, either. He spent his free time in the wild; camping, hiking…stuff like that. "No offense," I said with sarcasm, "But I doubt a New York cop is going to want to rent a scuba tank."

He laughed. "You got me. I'm sorry to call you here, but your cell phone was disconnected."

That surprised me. "My phone was disconnected?"

Diana raised an eyebrow at me as he said, "Yes, but don't worry, that's the work of one of my friends here. Hang on…keep the body still, and I want her to the nearest ICU, got it?" the command was muffled, but still audible.

"Why are you calling me from a crime scene?"

He sighed heavily, and my blood froze. "Look, sweetie, there's no easy way to put this; something happened. It's, give me a second," the command was muffled again, but I still heard it; "No, it's _Holloway_. 'Hollow' like a tree and 'way'…I don't care if the ambulance had to blow the outer gates up, just get paramedics here. Sorry," he came back on, "People who can't listen around here."

"Where's Bloom?" I immediately asked. Beside me, Diana's eyes widened.

Baker sighed again, causing me to grab onto the counter to keep myself up. "I'm sorry, Daph."

"Where is she?"

"Try to understand…"

"_Where is she_?"

He was patient with me, just like he always was. "It'll be fine, but she's…she's been in a warehouse explosion. And she's critical."

**Dun-dun-dun! Sorry for leaving you like that, but was there really any other way? **

**Well, I know you want to kill me (heck, I'd kill me), but I ask in the holiday spirit I remain intact. Also in the spirit, please review. I'm interested in feedback, people. Thanks!**

**Peace & Love 4 the holidays!**

**ember**


	14. New Friends

**Happy 2010! My New Year's resolution was to get a new chapter of this up, and what do ya know, here it is! I hope to have the last chapter up soon, too, so I can get to work on the sequel. So keep reading!**

* * *

I didn't know if I'd die.

That was the scariest thing as this bright light engulfed me; the feeling of 'oh hell, what did I just do?' It was like that one scene in Finding Nemo (a movie most of us agreed was 'unbelievably cute') where it's all black and the only thing you hear is 'I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead…'. But, just as that synopsis started going through my head, the weirdest thing happened to me.

I woke up.

* * *

Chapter 14: New Friends

* * *

**Bloom**

I woke to a steady beeping noise. The air reeked of cleaning products, my left arm was wrapped up in gauze (and in pain, I might add), and the sheets I were under had a slightly rough texture to them. So even before I opened my eyes I knew I was in a hospital. And alive. I liked the alive part.

"Bloom dahling!" Just as my eyes opened, someone wrapped their arms around me and gave me a tight hug.

"Stell –! Can't breathe, girl!

"Jeepers Stella, don't suffocate her!" I heard Flora chide. I also heard a poorly concealed laugh from Tecna.

"Oh sorry!" Stella immediately released me and leaned back, pushing the few strands not held by her headband back behind her ear. "I should have remembered that."

"That's ok," I said, slowly sitting up. It was a bit difficult, considering my good arm was hooked up to an array of wires, making movement almost impossible. Finally, with some help from Layla, I got into a comfortable sitting position. "What happened?"

"We were hoping you'd tell us." Layla said with a small smile.

"You were brought here after a deadly warehouse explosion." Tecna explained, "You had a second degree burn on your arm, first and minor second degree on your left leg, and some internal bleeding near your...liver, I want to say?" She ended in a question, obviously not sure.

"Great," I said sarcastically, "So I'm doped up on pain killers?"

"Oh big time," Tecna smiled, "But the internal bleeding was fixed a while ago."

"How long have I been here?"

"Four days," Flora supplied, "Mike and Vanessa approved all your medical care. Daph and Diana are here, too. They actually got here seven hours after you were brought in. They actually went to surprise some friend at..."

"Central Park. I talked to them earlier." Musa filled in. It was the first time she'd spoken to me nicely since she saw me on Music Avenue. I looked over at her, and she gave me a smile. I knew our fight was over, and I had a feeling Daph and Diana had told her everything. I nodded with a small smile as she continued, "Mike and Vanessa left a few minutes ago with a police officer...Baker, I think. They have paperwork to fill out. The guys were here, too."

I nodded again. It took a few more seconds to process all the information. Then I remembered something Tecna said. "Did you say deadly?"

Stella sat down in a chair and pulled her legs up, resting her head on her knees. "Yeah, the girl who set the fire in the first place. They found her bones – that's what the reports said, the body was burned so bad all they found were her bones with some chunks of flesh. I forget her name; started with a D."

"Thanks Stella," Musa cringed, "I didn't want to keep my lunch down, anyway." But I barley paid attention. Darcy was dead. Somehow that seemed impossible. And what about that girl Icy?

"But anyway," Flora's voice prevented me from thinking any more on the topic, "Mike and Vanessa talked to the police, and they're going to wait until you've made a full recovery before they question you."

"But," Tecna added, "The case is being classified as an attempted-murder-suicide. You're not required to answer anything."

Layla grinned. "She's been reading law books."

"I can see." I smiled too, and the six of us all laughed.

"Well, Roxy's been helping her," Musa added, "She's here, too, actually. Down at the snack machine with –" she cut herself off, her eyes wide like she'd just figured out something.

"Roxy's here with Sky," Flora said, shooting Musa an odd look, "They'll be ecstatic to find out your awake, Bloom."

Great. God forbid this would be easy.

Flora noticed my shift in emotions. "Roxy told us about your friend, and Musa filled in the rest."

"Yeah, and don't even worry. Just say the word and we kick Sky out of here like a cheap Prada knockoff," Stella insisted, putting on her 'game face'. That alone caused another round of laughter.

"No," I was finally able to say, "I really should talk to him. And," I turned to Musa, "You said Daphne and Diana were going to Central Park?"

Musa nodded. "Riven had heard from Baltor and he had said he was hanging out around there. They went to find him."

This was a little surprising. "He's not...in jail?"

"The police questioned him and let him go, mostly because he had some good alibis."

"Like Riven," Layla said. "The police thought we'd had no contact, but we all got together and got out story worked out once you got here."

The girls not knowing the whole truth about Baltor? Check. But another worry popped into my mind. "And Sky and Baltor..."

"Didn't kill each other," Tecna assured me, "They mostly stayed away from each other, and were too worried about you to try and rip each other limb from limb. You were very unstable when you got here."

"How did I get here?"

"I think people saw the fire," Flora said, pouring me some steaming liquid from a thermos. "And Baltor pulled you away from the fire. He said you fell out a window? Here..." she handed me a styrofoam cup that I could tell from the scent was filled with sage tea (Flora makes the best), "Do you remember what happened?"

I took a sip of the tea. "I heard some noise from the warehouse. I think I went inside...I don't remember." I decided it was best not to explain everything. At least not yet...

"Well we can worry about that whole thing later," Stella said, "But do we need to kick Sky out?"

I heard the sound of footsteps approaching and murmuring. "That's them," Layla said quietly, "We'll back you up no matter what, Bloom. Even Stella."

"Hey!"

"Chillax Stell, we're kidding." Musa grinned.

"You guys are the best." I finally said.

"We know," Tecna said, looking proud of the fact.

"I'm going to talk to Sky."

**Baltor**

"And here it is again, the remains of that poor girl burned to death in a warehouse explosion..."

Most people turned away in disgust at the picture of the bones, saying it was too graphic for television. While overly-concerned parents and led their children away from the screen, and older couples shook their heads in pity, I was getting a few glares because I was trying not to scoff at the word 'poor'.

The bones were fake. Icy had paid some top scientist is Australia to develop them. You just inserted a DNA sample into them, and they looked and registered as real. They had been strictly for emergency usage only, and it looks like they came in handy. It had taken Darcy exactly one minute and fifteen seconds to place them and get out of the fire. But even though she had looked weakened, she had still flipped me off and told me to rot in hell before jumping into the Lexus and speeding into the night. I don't know how Icy got out, but she was alive, too.

The way I found that out was because – to my utter – Darcy called me just as I was leaving the hospital after being questioned. She was calmer (a little tipsy, I think), and what she said to me was even more shocking.

All my files – which had been stored in the warehouse – had been burned. All traces of me connected to the ring, the records that put me house, car, bank account, and anything else to the name 'Elias Cantwell' (the alibi of the main leader), were gone. I was free. The money in the bank account I had never really had access to (1.3 million dollars), now actually belonged to me. So did the house, convertible, and the fake ID's I had. "But what's the point?" I had asked, leaning against the wall of the ER, "You can just re-do the records and get everything back, right?"

"Are you serious? Remaking everything is going to take time and a whole lot of cash. You just got lucky. They don't want to waste their time on it."

"And you?"

"Only your stuff burned. Everything else was either intact or just a little charred. There's no way I'm out of it."

"Oh."

"Yeah 'oh'," she had said sarcastically, "I've got relocation tomorrow. I'm working in Vegas for a while; it's too risky to stay here."

"And Dorkar?" That's what Darcy and I call Archimedes, one of our new techies. He's constantly annoyed by it and says if anything, we should call him Darkar instead. Needless to say, we don't listen.

"He's coming too," she had sounded disgusted, "Five months with that guy."

"Have fun," I had said sarcastically.

"Screw you," She'd shot back.

"I believe you've been interested in doing that for a while now."

"What!"

I would have given up all the money I had to see the look on her face. "Relax. I'm kidding."

"…Oh. Well, good. You'd better be."

"Mmm-hmm. So when do you leave?"

"Tomorrow at seven a.m. Northwest Airlines."

I nodded before realizing she couldn't see me. "Well…good luck."

The line was silent for a minute before she laughed. "They'll come for you eventually, Baltor. The whole thing isn't going to just disappear. They want to kill you. And when they get around to it, just don't be surprised if I'm there." There was a click, and dead air.

So now I was sitting on a bench near Fifth Avenue, watching the news broadcast on a T.V. in the window of a Radio Shack. Darcy's words hadn't rattled me much; she said herself they'd be back _eventually_. So until then, I could do what I want. And by the time things heated up again, I was sure I'd have a plan. But despite that, I somehow wanted to tell people even if the girl was dead, it called for a party, not a funeral. I mean –

_I want your love and I want your revenge,_

_You and me could write a bad romance…_

I jumped at the ringtone that blared out of cell phone. I didn't remember buying anything Lady Gaga…Musa must have done it when she programmed the girls' numbers into my phone. Making a mental note to ask her about it, I answered. "Hello?"

"She woke up." Musa's voice rushed into my ear.

A weight was lifted off my shoulders. "Thank God…and she's…?"

"She's good. No head trauma because she's speaking complete and coherent sentences. Complete thoughts…complaining about the food."

"She's back." I couldn't help but grin. All Bloom had done was complain when she went to the hospital when she was ten and broke her arm. It had driven Daphne and me to the verge of insanity. "Thanks for the update."

"What I'm here for. Sky's talking to her now."

"…Great." Gut, meet sucker punch. "Well I…I hope they work everything out."

"Sure. And I hope my car's being stolen."

I scoffed a little. "I'm that obvious?"

"You have no idea." Musa insisted, "Look, if you really want to, why don't you come up here and talk to her? She was asking about you earlier."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I think we both know she doesn't want to see me." My original plan had been to give everyone an abridged version of what happened. And that mostly worked. Musa, Roxy, and Riven however, weren't that simple to shake off. I knew if I didn't talk then Riven would somehow get me drunk the next time I was at the bar and work it out of me. So I told them the whole story.

"– Know she wants to," Musa was saying, "Come on, why can't you come down here?"

"Well I –"

Suddenly, a person from behind me snatched the phone out of my grasp. I bit shocked, I turned around and saw the person who had taken it. She was talking into the phone: "Sorry Musa, he's a little tied up at the moment."

I was still shocked, but that didn't stop me from rolling my eyes; something Diana failed to acknowledge. I heard Musa say, "Oh, hey Di. I didn't know you were around. That's ok; I've got to go, anyway."

"Cool. I'll talk to you later." She hung up the phone and held it out for me to take, a smirk grazing her lips. "Hey you."

"Um…hi?" I said, taking the phone back. "How did you…you know, get here?"

"Depends on 'here'. Daphne and I hoped the first plane out here – by the way, I think its fair you pay for half of the air fare, which was $175. As for 'here-here', we rented a car and used Riven as a tracker. Daph's trying to find a parking space."

"I wish her immense luck."

"That's what I said…geez, its freaking cold here," Di said, flopping down on the bench next to me. She shoved her hands into the front pocket of her 'Catalina Coastguard' sweatshirt in an attempt to keep warm.

"Welcome to New York."

"No kidding," she trailed off for a second before speaking again, "So where have you been? Daph and I heard from Flora you were released, and we expected to see you around."

"What was the point in going? I know for a fact Bloom wouldn't want me there."

"Hmm, really? Why's that?"

"Why is the Earth round? It just is, Diana. I kidnapped her, held her for ransom, completely betrayed her, and she comes out saving my life."

"You know what that's called?" She asked me, taking her hands out of her pocket and rubbing them together.

"A desperate cry for help?"

"Love you idiot, love."

"Bloom loves me. Why do I doubt that?"

"Because you love her, too. Do I have to explain everything? She made sure you got out of that time-bomb first because she loves you and you're so 'friggin guilty that you didn't get her out first you won't talk to her. Or us. You know I tried calling your phone? Fifteen times?"

"I know."

"Then what's your deal? Wake up, man!" She hit the back of my head lightly.

"Diana…you know it's not that easy. In fact, my troubles are just beginning. I can't drag anyone into them; especially you or Bloom. And even though I've got time to work it out, and even if I did, do you think Daphne is going to be jumping for joy to see me again?"

"Wellll…ok, fine, you've got that one. But why don't you just ask her?" Before I could do anything else, she jumped up and waved her hand, "Hey Daph, over here!"

My eyes widened. "I am going to kill you."

"Then I'll die laughing." She said smugly, sitting back down as Daphne approached. "Look who I found. Long time no see huh?"

"Very long."

Even though it would probably get me a decent glare, I looked over at Daph. Her brown hair was a little frazzled, and there were faint circles under her brown eyes, most likely covered by makeup. But even though she didn't look her best in jeans and a blue shirt with black writing that said 'Bet you can't read my mind', she still looked like she could rip me in half with the right amount of adrenaline. "Don't comment," she said when she caught me staring, "I know I look like shit."

"Come on, you look……"

"Exactly. I haven't been having the best sleep," her lips set in a scowl as she looked at me full on, "Too worried."

"And I wasn't?"

"Why would you be? You're alive, aren't you?"

"Cheap shot, Daphne," I said, my eyes narrowing at her.

"Was it? I spent that five hour plane ride worried out of my mind. There were a million 'what if's' running through my head; what if she's on life support, what if they couldn't get to her, what if I couldn't say goodbye? Again!" she yelled the last word. I stayed quiet, figuring it was better for her to let this out. "Baltor, what the _hell_? Do you know how pissed I am at you? After I got the real story from Musa about what went down at the warehouse, I just wanted to kill you. You kidnapped my sister? After you _made out_ with her? Your friend cut the tape during that kiss," she said before I could question how she knew that, "So the cops think you went off after that to do…forget it. That you were on your way back and wanted to have a little fun and slipped into the restricted section of the city. And you were just being a good little friend and saved her life. Do you know how hard it was to just keep quiet when I heard that? And she almost died…and you didn't care."

It was silent for five seconds, my signal to debate. "Look Daphne…you're screwed up if you think I'm not sorry."

"Oh yeah, you must me so disappointed." She said sarcastically, "You and your no good mafia."

"My no good mafia tossed me out saying I better run for my life before they come back to kill me. You must be so disappointed," I threw her own words back at her. "Do we have any other stupid things to point out?"

"I hate you."

I laughed a little coldly and stood to face her eye to eye. "I really doubt that, sweetheart."

Her eyes widened. "Why you…"

"Oh my god you guys just shut up!" In all honesty, I had forgotten Diana was sitting there. We both turned to look at her. She had a look that was partially amused and partially annoyed. "I mean really, Daph I knew you took drama for a year but…"

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"She's been fully intent on telling people their feelings and purposes in life." I muttered back to her.

"Ok, let's just get everything on the table, shall we. You," she pointed to me, "Are a totally irresponsible man who got himself in way over his head and cost himself his life. You were a stupid, selfish, and completely idiotic bastard, who could have used the tiniest bit of common sense and saved yourself all this trouble. And you," she turned to Daphne, "You just can't get over this whole anger."

"I've got a right to!"

"Yeah you did. Nine years later, here we are, in the middle of park in New York, on the other end of the country, with the guy you supposedly want to kill via an unfortunate food poisoning incident."

"Don't give her ideas."

"You be quiet. Now, I must ask mi amiga, if you really hate, him, what are we doing here?"

Daphne truly looked stunned. "I…"

"Exactly."

"You know I'm really starting to worry about you," I said, crossing my arms.

"Well, I can make it up to you by telling you what Daphne was going to say to you before she exploded."

Her eyes widened. "Don't you dare…"

"We're moving out here."

That shocked me. "You're moving out here?"

"Yep. Figured it'd be easier. All we have to do is sell the house and…"

"Don't."

"What?"

"I don't want you guys out here. Trust me when I say you'd be in more danger then you could think."

"Oh come on. Scared we'd be able to beat whatever little friends of yours drop in here?" Daphne smirked.

"Actually I'm scared they'd beat you. Daphne, let me explain something to you; the only reason I didn't leave was because the only way out was a bullet to the heart. And hearing every little detail about murdering someone…do you think I wanted to hear it? Especially when it came to people like you or Bloom? Do you know how grateful I was in '02 to find out you weren't with Diana? I really thought you weren't in the country anymore, and you'd be safe. But now that your back here…I can't have you getting in the way of something that isn't your problem."

"Wait, how do you know where I was in 2002?"

"You know how the police said the car parked outside your house was the neighbors? It wasn't."

That was the first time Diana was speechless. But of course Daphne wasn't. "You and I both know Bloom won't listen to you with this whole bit."

"I'm hoping she will."

"But we _know_ she won't. And I definitely will not let you break her heart a third time."

"Daph…"

"Don't 'Daph' me. Don't you remember the incident with the high school dealer?"

I grinned. "Unfortunately."

To my surprise, she grinned, too. "Exactly. So what's the point of keeping her out of trouble if she just finds a way in?"

I sighed. "You've got a point. I have to admit though; I've never seen anyone's head twist like that from a punch."

Daphne laughed a little. "Yeah, but then you broke into his locker and trashed all the drugs…"

"You gave me the locker combination." We both stopped, realizing we were laughing and not killing each other. It was silent for a few seconds while Diana sat there with an 'I told you so' smirk. "Ok look," I finally said, "I'm not guaranteeing anything if you do stay here, but I'm not saying you're going to be safe. So are you interested in the long unabridged version of this story or just some quick five minute speech about the dangers you might face?"

"Unabridged." Daphne said immediately.

I sighed. Why was I surprised? "All right. Well what happened is…"

**Bloom**

"You look better already," Sky remarked when he saw me. He had on jeans and this rip off T-shirt we'd given him, with a little bird on it, except instead of 'Twitter' it says 'Nobody cares!'. "I have to admit, I was pretty freaked."

"Yeah, I'd expect. Have I really been here for four days?"

"More like three and a half but…basically four days."

"Ugh, great."

"Hey at least you were out cold."

I smiled a little. "Yeah…so, everyone's been here, huh?"

"Oh yeah, the girls practically never left. And Bandon and the guys just left."

"It's good to know I had you guys to back me up."

"Yeah…" We lapsed into silence. Finally, Sky spoke. "We're avoiding the big subject, aren't we?"

I sighed. "Yeah. Look Sky, I really am sorry. I shouldn't have led you on like I did."

"That's ok. It's just…Bloom why didn't you say anything?"

"I really didn't want to hurt you, Sky. I knew you'd take everything the wrong way and I knew Stella wouldn't exactly be jumping with support," he smiled a little as I continued, "So I thought it'd be best for everyone if I kept quiet. I guess it didn't work, huh?"

"I guess not. And I'm sure I wasn't exactly giving you options." He sighed. "I just thought…well, I thought there was something else. I mean after Diaspro dumped me –"

"Whoa, I don't remember that part."

He laughed a little. "That's because I never told anyone. But my sister found out about you, and she told Diaspro…"

"And Diaspro got jealous?"

"Take a millionaires daughter who's never heard the word 'no' and show her someone's happier without her…what other emotion can you get?"

"At least you didn't find me hanging by a scarf." We both cracked up a little. "I guess we both weren't very smart."

"You're telling me. From now on, stay away from the creepy warehouse, ok?"

"A done deal. And we're…still friends right?"

"I hope. What do you say we put all this behind us?"

"I'm sure it won't happen, but sure." I smiled and held my left hand out. "Friends?"

Sky rolled his eyes at it and pulled me into a hug, being careful not to hurt me. I smiled and hugged back, mostly because it wasn't romantic, but friendly, just like always.

**Fourteen down, one to go! I'm really happy with how everything looks, but the real question is, are you guys? If you are, if you aren't, or if your somewhere in between, click that green button down there and tell me! **


	15. A New Start

**Last chapter! I can't believe it!**

**Ok, so thanks to a very good review, I found out my last chapter may have left a few people going 'what?' and I wanted to clear it up. Just to make sure we all keep it straight, only Roxy, Musa, and Riven know the entire truth of what Baltor's really done (besides, Bloom, Daph, and Di of course). Second, the girls helped Baltor get out of trouble because they thought he was helping Bloom all along (yeah right), and they didn't want him in trouble. Baltor also never broke into Diana's house or anything. And I think that's everything...yeah, that's it! So without further delay, the last chapter of Unexpected!**

I was in the hospital for three more days.

Let me tell you: not fun. Though, in all honesty, the days there really were helpful (something I would have never admitted at the time). I did I little therapy to get control of my hand again, made sure all my cuts and bruises weren't badly infected, and all of that good stuff. My friends were with me almost all the time, which sometimes got annoying (we learned the hard way that the hospital adds extra sugar to their coffee – Stella was practically bouncing off the walls.). And I probably _don't_ need to tell you who wasn't around. But after hearing about the conversation in the park, I couldn't really blame Baltor. It was either come here and be totally guilty, or come and be ripped apart by Daphne (well of course she'd never actually do that, but you know) and my adoptive parents (who had ironically never met Baltor). And speaking of Baltor, I knew that before I could even think about letting my life go back to normal, I needed to talk to him.

Chapter 15: A New Start

**Bloom**

I stepped out of the automatic doors of the hospital, letting the cool wind blow around me. I hadn't been outside in a week. It felt great.

After a battery of tests had been run, and innumerable blood samples had been taken, I was finally deemed 'ready to go home' – the best phrase in the human language besides 'cheese filled crust'. The girls would have been there with me when I got out, but I think Stella was throwing a mini-party for me instead. Musa offered to drive me home, but after I told her my plan, she agreed to help me by making sure Daph and Diana were helping Stella and there was no way they'd figure out my plans. Not that they wouldn't approve, but I needed to do this alone.

Stella had dropped off my purse and some clothes for me before I left, and now I reached into the pocket of the jeans, grabbing the piece of paper Musa told me she'd left. I read the number written on it, while taking my phone out of my purse. Before I could lose my nerve, I punched the number into my phone and the green send button. The line started ringing, and I couldn't hang up now.

"Hello?" a voice answered.

I took a breath. "Hey Baltor."

The line fell silent for a second. "Hey." He chuckled a little. "I didn't expect to hear from you. Musa give you my number?"

"Yep. What did you expect?"

"Oh, I expected it; I'm just surprised for some crazy reason."

I laughed quietly. "Silly you."

"I know. So, is the ER as exciting as it is on the soap operas?"

"Not as much, I'm sorry to say. They just let me out a little while ago."

"Alone?"

"Yep."

"Are they crazy?" he sounded like he could kill them, "You were critical, and they let you leave alone?"

Ah, the rare caring side of Baltor. Somehow it was amusing (even though it was all his fault) as I began to walk across the lot. "Relax, ok? My internal bleeding was stopped before any major damage could occur, my legs in a little pain, and the burn on my arm's going to leave a bit of a scar.. I'm fine other than that. You know I hate hospitals. And besides, I've been worse."

"I highly doubt that." Baltor said, sounding stern.

"Let me have my own dreams will, you?"

"Not yet. Are you sure you're ok?"

I felt like making a wisecrack about how this was all his fault to begin with, but decided it was better not to. "Look I'm –" not watching where I was going, I tripped over a crack in the pavement. I regained my balance, but my leg was now searing with pain. I winced a little.

"What the hell was that?"

"I just tripped," I said, rubbing my calf, "I'm fine."

"Oh really? Is your voice always that high and strained when you're _fine_?"

I couldn't take it. "Look who suddenly cares. This is all your fault, remember? Don't be giving me grief about being more careful, when I got these injuries saving _your_ life after _you_ kidnapped me!"

The line was silent for about six seconds. "I deserve that."

"No kidding, Einstein." I snapped before the pain dulled out, along with my anger. "Look," I continued, a bit softer, "I just need to take those pain killers they gave me; that'll probably help my leg. And I never got to ask, but are you ok?"

He laughed a little. "You don't worry about me, Okay? I'm fine."

"I mean it. You didn't have any injuries, did you?"

"Some minor things, but nothing serious like you."

"Always come out unharmed, huh?"

"I suppose." He replied absently. "Now, I'm assuming you want to talk in person about all of this, right?"

"Yeah…I mean, can't they listen to your calls?"

"'They' don't control me anymore. But it is always a possibility…"

"Right. So where are you? I have time."

"Central Park. Huge shady tree."

"Got it. I'll be there in ten."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_You are the biggest idiot in the world for doing this. He's lied to you twice before; what does he have to lose doing it a third time?_

That was my conscious, rattling off in my head as I closed the taxi door after handing him two twenties. Right now, the only thing keeping me from turning around was the fact I would never forgive myself if I did it. As I walked, I found myself constantly rubbing my arms, trying to stay warm against the cold breeze. I should have asked Stella to bring me my jacket along with everything else. It was October, after all.

Finally making it through the trees, I walked past the old willow tree to the edge of the Pond, where I had come out all those days ago. If I had known then what I knew now, would I have just broken Baltor's embrace and stayed away? Would I have tried to talk him out of it when I had a better chance? Could I have changed Baltor's mind? Speaking of him…I looked around, but the place was seemingly empty. It looked like I was alone.

I _so_ knew better. "So are you going to say anything, or just stare at me?"

I heard a laugh behind me. "Look who's gotten sharp."

I turned around – almost wearily – to the base of the tree. Baltor almost didn't look real standing there; mostly because of how normal he looked: his favorite long burgundy jacket over a white shirt, his dark jeans and dark brown leather boots, and his long hair blowing. I noticed the slightest hint of a bruise on his neck, but other than that he looked as handsome as ever. And he defiantly looked better than me, with my ankle in gauze and the cut on my arm easily visible and very bad looking. I suddenly felt very tired from the physical activity. My body wasn't used to being so worn out. "Sorry to say, but you really don't look all that good."

"Yeah thanks." I said, shivering as the wind picked up. "It's probably my muscles finally working again."

"They shouldn't have let you out of there."

"And they shouldn't have let Brittany Spears out of the nut house, either."

Baltor gave a real laugh, something that in turn made me smile. "A very good point." He finally said.

"Yeah…dang, why is it so cold?"

"It's called winter. Remember, they used to be really bad when we were kids?" he grinned a little. "You want my jacket?"

"Huh?"

"My jacket." He had already slipped off his coat and was holding it out to me. I was a good seven feet from his outstretched hand. "Come on; promise I won't bite."

Shoving any petty amount of fear down my throat, I stepped forward and took the material from his outstretched hand. "So" I said, draping the jacket around my shoulders and sinking to the ground, my back resting against the tree trunk, "There's no easy way to do this, is there?"

Baltor dropped next to me, our knees almost touching. "I don't think so."

"So where do we start?"

He looked at me, his gold eyes looking like they were trying to hide how I felt too: tired. "What do you want to know?"

I thought for a second. "How long have you really lived here?"

"I was…what, nineteen; maybe even eighteen. It was around there so I could live on my own and not be questioned.."

I smiled a little. "College dropout?"

"You know I would have flunked anyway. But after that, it was just this and these type assignments; 'get some money', 'we need to get seven hundred thousand dollars worth of counterfeit checks. Handle it'."

"And you did that?"

"It was just the trade; you do the shooting or you get shot."

I shivered involuntarily, wrapping Baltor's jacket closer around me. The familiar scent of oranges and cinnamon enveloped me, and I felt a little better. "So what were you doing there in the first place?"

"You remember the guy from the high school who sold all the drugs?"

I quirked an eyebrow in thought. "Alan?"

"Yep. Well, this one night he was high on something, and I ran into him downtown. We got fighting, and I finally had the idea to try and…" he stopped, as though considering what he was saying to me, "Let's just say I did some things. And finally, when I thought I was getting somewhere, he pulled a knife on me.. I thought he'd kill me. But as he was raising the knife, there was this bang, and he fell to the ground in front of me."

"Darcy?" I guessed.

"In the flesh. She shot him down for me. Killed him, actually; she probably would have been caught if she hadn't figured out how to re-wire the cameras outside the place. After that we got talking, and she told me about what she was doing. The idea of being free and being able to start fresh and get all this money, and just…_live_ for once sounded perfect." Baltor sighed. "Then she told me what I had to do. She had just saved my life; I couldn't say no."

"Why did they want my parents dead?"

"I never knew. No one ever told me. And at first I thought it was just your parents, too. Then one day we were just supposed to go out and find you and Daphne. We teamed up with Darcy's sisters, Isabella and Savannah – of course, it's Icy and Stormy now."

"Because I've always wanted to be named after something that has to do with the weather."

"After a while you learn not to question them. But you were gone; like you just disappeared off the face of America. So eventually we gave up and went back to what we always did."

"So you didn't send those guys to rob me in the first place?"

"No. That was just fate. Those guys were dicks, anyway. I hacked the mainframe of the NYPD the next day and got them extra sentencing once they were arrested."

"Thanks."

"I wouldn't be thanking me. It's the _least_ I can do, considering what I've done."

"Well…if you don't mind me asking; what all have you done? Illegal wise and everything?"

"What I haven't done is probably a better question. I've stolen, sold fake ID's, illegal drugs, passports…that kind of thing. And now I get to add kidnapping to the list." He sighed, resting his head on his knees. "I'm just a fucking fantastic guy, aren't I?"

"Of course you are." I found myself saying.

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "You know as much as I appreciate it, you really don't need to defend me."

"Of course I do. This wasn't completely your fault. And you're out of trouble with the law. You can start over."

"Starting over is easier said than done. I mean, I've got all the tools, but eventually, they're still going to track me down and try to kill me."

"Why don't you actually go to the police?"

Baltor laughed. "They couldn't do me any good. The gang…mafia, just to make you happy, is completely advanced. It's almost like they have technology from another world. We have access to the police, city records, blueprints, the _FBI_ for God's sake. I have no idea what I'm going to do."

"Don't say that," I insisted, "We'll think of something."

"We?" he looked up at me. "Oh no. I'll think of something, and you go back to your own life."

I crossed my arms like a stubborn child. "Aren't they still interested in taking mine? Face it Baltor; we're in this together."

He sighed. "I know…I just wish we weren't. It's my own fault I'm in this, but you don't deserve to be in this."

"Well maybe I think it'll be fun."

"It's not. It's hard."

"So teach me." He looked at me blankly as I continued, "I know you told Daph it'd be a while before they came back, but in that time, can't you teach me some stuff so we might have a chance against them? And maybe we can find someone who can help with this. You don't have to give up."

"Bloom," he shook his head at me in wonder, "You are one crazy girl."

"I learned from a very crazy guy."

"I know. You shouldn't have hung out with that Sky so much."

I laughed. "Very funny."

"Yeah well sarcasm is one of the few things I have left." He gave me a small smirk. "Besides you."

"So I'm just a consolation prize, huh?"

"Hell no. You are so much more than that."

I found myself smiling softly. "I bet you say that to all the girls who save your life."

He grinned at me with that mischief, before reaching out and grabbing the sleeves of his jacket and giving them a good tug. Considering it was still around my shoulders, I was jolted forward practically mauling into him. I put my hands on his chest to balance myself, looking into his eyes. "Are you sure you want into this?" he asked me. "I mean I have no idea what could happen."

I shrugged and smiled. "I like unexpected things."

Apparently that was all Baltor needed to pull me closer and kiss me.

I didn't know what would happen. I really could be in trouble, and this really could be the biggest mistake of my life. There were tons of 'what if's', and even more ideas of what could go wrong. My friends, my family, Sky…who knew? But for now, I decided to take things one step at a time. I wrapped my arms around Baltor's neck and pushed myself closer to him as the kiss deepened.

Yeah, strike my last comment. I'd take _most_ things one step at a time.

**Done! I can't believe it. Thank you guys so much for sticking with me through this, and I hoped you ejoyed it as much as I did. Please be sure to leave your final thoughts on how you think the story turned out; last chance! Anyway, hope you all enjoyed! Peace Out!**

**ember**


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